Legend from the Stars
by G.O.D.Beerus
Summary: Naruto has had many adventures in his life. He has traveled the entirety of the Elemental Nations and beyond like his teacher, Jiraiya, before him. What else was there to do? Why, head to the stars of course. Rated M for mature content.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

* * *

He gazed out into the void. Watching as the stars glistened and shined. It was strange. No matter how many times he travelled through space it still excited and intimidated him. He supposed it should. The vast expanse was one of the few things that would inevitably kill him.

Leaning back in his large (and extremely comfortable) captain's chair he set the ship to be flown by his A.I. then stood, stretching and popping his joints. "Shukaku" he called out "Find me a good planet in this sector."

He turned and passed through the automatic doors that lead from the bridge to the rest of his small craft. As he entered the lift that would bring him from the command centre to the living quarters, armoury, the engine access point and the deployment room he heard the sound system come to life around him.

" **If I may commander,"** a disembodied and calm voice spoke " **What definition of 'good planet' am I using this time?** "

He set the lift for the armoury and gave a confused look at the ship around him. "What do you mean 'this time'? There is only one kind of good planet that I mean and it's a planet that is bustling with a bunch of life forms that I can mess with." He told his A.I. with an innocent expression.

The voice, Shukaku, did not respond immediately instead waiting till the lift arrived at its destination. Only once the commander was in the deceptively large armoury and had begun to browse through the assortment of weapons on display did Shukaku reply. **"Parameters met, planet located. Course set and input into drives. Departing now.** "

The commander barely had time to secure his feet to the ground before the ship spun sharply and shot out into the void. Looking up around him he chuckled "You really are fun to travel with you know? Very by the book but cheeky at the strangest times. I suppose it's because of who I named you after right?"

"… **.I don't know what you're talking about commander."**

He looked down at the nodachi in his hand and smiled.

"I told you to call me by my name remember?"

" **It was not programed in my initial coding to address you as such, so it is taking some time to rewrite and get used to….Naruto."**

Naruto nodded "Probably some of the engineers who helped build you trying to mess with me. I bet it was Sato, Gin and Tsuru herself right?"

"… **..No data available."**

"Of course not."

Once Naruto was back in the command centre he saw that they were already approaching the planet.

"Why haven't you activated the stealth system yet?"

" **Initial scans have indicated these planet's residents have not developed space travel yet."**

"Ooooh, those are always the most fun. Hey, you think I'll become this one's deity? Think they'll try to eat me?"

" **Not enough data to make a conclusion."**

Naruto sat in his chair and said "Well hurry up then. I want to see what we're dealing with."

" **Understood."**

The ship sprang to life and in the span of several seconds they were entering the planet's atmosphere.

Naruto startled for a moment as he expanded his senses. "Hide us Shukaku! There is more to this planet then your systems can detect yet!"

The ship vanished in the sky and Naruto sent his chakra into the ships own network and made sure its energies were hidden properly.

Naruto then stood and gazed out at the planet below through the large windows that spanned most of the command decks front section.

"Shukaku expand your chakra based sensors."

" **Apologies commander I thought that the odds of another planet having our same energies wa….oh."**

"See? Not exactly the same but closer to our planets than most. How very curious. Have you mapped the land masses yet?"

" **Yes."**

"Add the energies of the life forms down there and give it to me on the centre display."

Naruto gazed at the map for several moments before making his decision.

"Drop me off on the outskirts of this cluster here." Naruto indicated towards the south-east of the largest land mass.

" **Understood. Would you like me to accompany you coman –** (silent glare) **Naruto?"**

Naruto took the lift to the lowest section of the ship and stepped out onto the deployment hatch.

"Maybe later, I want to get a feel for this place first before I make a plan. Besides I think your drones would scare the locals."

" **That wasn't a problem for you on that last planet."**

Naruto grimaced "That's becau-"

The floor panels shot open and Naruto was suddenly subject to the planets gravity. He laughed as he fell and yelled out "Like I said, cheeky!"

As he descended he looked to where his ship was supposed to be and pictured the small craft in his mind's eye. He had wanted it to be simple enough in design (he already had more extravagant ships) and practical enough for long trips on his own or with a couple more people. It was oval in its overall shape with the command centre being at the top and deployment room at the bottom. The propulsion systems spaned most of the back and it had two protrusions near the middle of the craft that contained some defence systems that could be controled manually or remotely.

As he got closer to the ground he spun himself around and focused on the upcoming land below. Naruto felt his chakra spring to life as he called forth his most familiar element. Feeling the wind answer his call immediately he was a little surprised. The wind came rushing to him as it always did, and ever since he had become a sage he was more attuned to the natural raw elements, but he was stunned by how much he was controlling with so little energy.

'This wind…..it's begging to be used'

On his home planet Chakra moved though everything and as a sage he could feel it in the land around him. This planets energy was similar and through his chakra he could connect to it. The wind he was feeling, it had been used in the past but had at some point ceased being harnessed.

'Interesting. These planets inhabitants can harness this energy and manipulate the elements. I need to tread carefully till I know what I'm dealing with.'

If they were anything like his world he might be dealing with some powerful opponents.

Aiming for a forested hill he increased his speed till he reached the trees so anything looking up would be hard pressed to spot him. Much like the wind he controlled, Naruto glided around the trees and branches while descending the hill. Decreasing his speed slowly and concealing his presence even more he began to touch down on the trees lightly as he passed them. This allowed him to transition smoothly from flying to lightly hopping from tree to tree. When he reached the edge of the forest he stopped silently on a tall tree as the wind continued on past him.

Naruto reached out with his senses behind him and grinned. Nothing had been seemingly disturbed. The living beings in the forest had payed no more attention to him then they would a passing breeze.

'See that Shukaku? Total stealth. None the wiser. Aren't you glad you have such a skilled captain?' He bragged silently to his A.I.

He could speak to each of his ships via thought much like a yamanaka because he made sure they each had their own chakra system. At first he had to fill them with chakra himself but after a time his brilliant engineers and chakra experts had found a way to allow them to generate their own albeit at a much slower rate and with less amount then even a genin, depending on the chakra generator. For this reason only the most basic things like speaking to ships via thought were all they were used for. Especially for his smaller ships like Shukaku.

' **Yes Naruto very well done.'**

Naruto stood and puffed his chest out placing his hands on his hips. If it wouldn't have compromised his presence he would have leaned back and laughed as well.

' **Mari would have done it better though.'**

'...You….Who gave YOU a sense of humour! HUH?! Never mind. Shukaku standby mode.'

Naruto grumbled silently under his breath as several clones popped into existence around him. Pairing up and putting all their stealth abilities to use they split up and ran in several directions.

As Naruto and his paired clone drew closer to their destination he looked at the night sky above him. There were several reasons Naruto had chosen this location to make his arrival. One of them being it was the beginning of night and this end of the planet provided the longest night from what he had observed of the positioning of the celestial bodies in this sector.

Feeling the various life forms ahead of him he focused on the approaching structures. From what he could see, with his enhanced vision cutting through the darkness, the residents were far enough along in their development that they had developed a culture and were not very primitive at all. It only made sense considering a lot of energies were clumped together like cities and towns.

Another reason he had chosen this area was because it had a small grouping of towns all clustered together and far away from any major cities. This way if he was exposed at any point during his reconnaissance it should take some time for any large force to come up against him.

They were at the walls now and he and his clone leapt up right under the guard tower. Sensing a guard right in the window above them he signalled to his clone, secured his feet to the walls and quickly weaved some hand signs. Once the clone saw the last hand sign he flipped up onto the window sill right in front of the guard without making a sound. The guard made no movement. Naruto joined his clone on the ledge and gazed into the soldiers eyes. They were unfocused. Staring straight passed them at something beyond the walls.

Naruto was satisfied. It seemed illusion techniques worked on these people well enough if he taped into their energy.

'People?'

Wow. They looked almost exactly the same.

Ears, eyes, mouth….all the same? What were the odds of that?

It was something he could investigate some other time, if he felt like it, for now he needed to complete his objective.

Speeding past the guard and onto the rooftops of the town's houses he began looking for his objective.

Heading to the most extravagant house in town he and his clone quickly located the master bedroom. Entering from different windows Naruto and his clone took up their positions in the room. The clone wall climbed to the top corner of the room that allowed a clear view of all the entry points while Naruto made his way to the head of the bed. He looked down at the older male and female sleeping soundly.

'You are going to have one hell of a dream man.'

Naruto placed his hand on the males head and began gathering information.

This technique he had developed over time with the help of the yamanaka, his A.I. and the various mind specialists on his planet. It had pretty much become essential to have down once Naruto started traveling on his own. With his clone watching over him he would not be disturbed and would be able to get as much information as possible in a single night. He chose the more wealthy individuals because more often than not they were more educated. Even if he had a less educated individual his other clones in the other towns would guarantee at least a basic knowledge of the language and structure of the world he was now on.

Naruto stayed almost till dawn with the man, Gunzo a wealthy merchant, as he was a well of knowledge due to his business but had to cut the connection as dawn was almost upon them.

Coming out of the cloudy haze that surrounded his senses he glanced down Gunzo's face. He was dreaming deeply and Naruto grinned. Because he wasn't as good as some of his mind readers when he did this technique the targets mind would have to be asleep to allow easy access for him. Also because he had to link their minds sometimes the individual would have some crazy dreams based on his own memories. Another reason for the target to be sleeping as most people would easily pass off the crazy memories as dreams and forget them as unimportant.

Naruto glanced at his clone and nodded. They then both vanished and appeared on the training mat in his quarters on his ship. Naruto saw that the rest of his clones were knelling already in a circle. Settling down beside them he joined the mind connection they had and began the long process of sorting through all the information he had acquired.

They spent the rest of the day like that. As each clone finished sharing their information they dispelled. As the last clone dispelled Naruto opened his eyes…..then fell back exhausted.

'Damn. That always takes it out of me.'

"Shukaku, beeeeeedd tiiiiiiiime!"

" **Of course Naruto everything is already prepared."**

Naruto teleported to his dinner table, made a lazy hand sign and a large bowel of ramen appeared on the table in front of him. With his remaining energy he quickly downed the steaming broth. After cleaning up and getting ready for bed he spoke to his A.I. once more.

"I'm gonna need your help tonight buddy with all this info. I'll also need you to make some clothes that will fit in here. Make sure to incorporate some orange."

" **Acknowledged. Good night sir."**

With that out of the way Naruto collapsed on his bed and went out like a light.

* * *

Lei splashed some water over his head to clean off his sweat. It helped his nerves a bit as well. The semi-finals had been tough. He had barely defeated his last opponent. Should have really drilled into his head how dirty everyone was going fight. This was an illegal fight ring after all with no real rules. He just hadn't thought it would be this different from a bending school. There were even some non-benders competing. That was fine though, as far as he knew only one non-bender had made it to the finals.

As he made his way back to the edge of the raised earth with the large moat around it that made up the combat ring he looked at his competition.

The most dangerous was probably the old man. He had the best form and could control the earth with great precision. The man's name was Bo Huang if he remembered correctly from the announcers. Bo was just slightly shorter than his own 6'1 foot frame, almost black brown eyes, slightly pale (for an earth kingdom citizen anyway), with his long hair in a traditional topknot. He wore a daopao in the earth kingdom colours that also had the golden earth kingdom symbol sewn onto the back. His hair was white and he had a long fu-manchu moustache with an almost as long goatee.

The next most dangerous opponent was the woman with the long war hammer strapped to her back.

Lei blushed slightly at the tall form of Mei-ling. She stood at about 6'4 and was the tallest in their group. To say she was striking would be an understatement, with an angular face, honey brown eyes and almost too perfect features. Her hair was midnight black and shaved on most of the left side while the rest of her long locks fell on the right.

He wondered how it didn't impede her combat.

She was tan like most earth kingdom citizens but not as dark as those from the water tribe. She wore a cheongsam top in earth kingdom colours that exposed her arms and midriff revealing her wide hips, toned stomach and fit arms. He also noted, a little perversely, that it seemed to barely contain her bountiful chest. She also wore a matching cheongsam skirt that just barely covered her well-shaped posterior. Underneath it she wore tight black spandex that extended to the middle of her strong thighs.

The war hammer was simple in design with a grey box head that slightly narrowed on both ends. The handle was tightly wrapped in brown leather, was about a meter and a half in length and had a ball counter weight on the bottom.

As they made their way out onto the ring, Lei thought about the final competitor. The man had neglected to give his name instead going by the moniker of 'Hakaishin'. He didn't know what that meant, he wasn't from a rich family after all, but he could only guess it meant orange in some dialect.

As he and the others made it to the centre of the ring they saw the man, Hakaishin, come out from the entrance behind them with his hands behind his head and whistling a merry tune.

He wore a male cheongsam with the torso and collar being black. The loose sleeves and clasps were ORANGE.

Seriously? Who liked orange that much? He supposed it could have been worse. The majority of the outfit was black at least.

The man wore matching black pants with the ends wrapped in white cloth that went into his white socks and black cloth shoes. A black rectangular pouch was strapped to his leg and it looked like he had two slightly larger ones on the back of his waist. He had short shaggy blonde hair, blue eyes, strong jaw line, tan skin and most interestingly three lines on each cheek. He was taller than Lei himself and just shy of Mei-ling.

All in all the man 'Hakaishin' stood out. Every one couldn't help but take notice of this strange man with his strange clothes.

As he approached the group Bo called out to him. "You sure took your sweet time kid. Time is money you know?"

Hakaishin withdrew one hand from behind his head and scratched it with the other while squinting with his eyes and smiling brightly.

"Sorry, sorry, I was trying to decide what to get at the snack bar. Then I remembered that I don't have any money and was incredibly depressed. So I helped an old lady to her seat on the way back and felt a little better afterwards." He finished with a hand on his hip, the other making a peace sign and a bright smile.

Lei felt his eye twitch a little.

"No-one is going to believe that excuse." Lei exclaimed. "This place is full of only the most dangerous criminals, benders and corrupt nobles in all of Omashu. No old lady is going to be caught dead here."

Hakaishin turned to him while shaking his head with eyes closed and replied.

"Tsk tsk, let me tell you something junior…."

"We're about the same age!"

"…life is full of stuff that doesn't make sense. I mean look at me. I'm so incredibly unrealistically amazing and yet I'm here."

Lei fumed and was about to retort before Mei-ling beat him to the punch.

"Oh, I certainly hope you fight better than you boast otherwise I'll be incredibly disappointed."

Hakaishin looked to Mei-ling as his eyes opened slightly.

"You have no idea."

Lei jolted slightly.

What in spirits name was that?! Why for a brief moment did he want to get as far away from blonde as possible?

He shook his head slightly, blinking and looked again. No. It must have been his imagination. The guy was a clown!

He decided then that he would take him out first. The guy wasn't even a bender from what he had overhead the spectators say. He was good enough to be here but he must have been lucky with his match ups.

" **LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"** the announcer with his booming voice cut through the atmosphere.

Lei and the other competitors directed their attention to the announcer's box.

" **These are your finalists! As you know this is a no-holds barred fight! Anything goes! While killing is discouraged it is not forbidden! The earth in the ring is loosely packed and a little softer than normal but a good strike can still deal a fatal blow! This final fight will be a battle royal with all four contestants trying to claim victory over each other to win the grand prize of fifty-thousand! Victory can be attained by ring out, or your opponents being unable to continue! Now without further ado, Contestants! Make your way to the edge of the ring and prepare to begin on the flag signal!"**

Lei's opponents turned to head to their own spots. As they did Lei glanced once more at the back of the clown and froze.

'What in the world…'

On the back of Hakaishin's cheongsam was an extremely detailed and intimidating orange nine-tailed fox. The fox seemed to be encircling a ball of light with its tails fanned out and waving behind it. One of the foxes paws rested on the ball and only one eye was visible as it looked at the light.

Wait. It was looking at him?!

Lei quickly turned and made his way to his spot. He'd show them. These criminals might be strong but he wasn't like them. He was going to win, use the winnings and fame to rebuild his school and make Omashu a better place.

As the signal man stood ready with the flag, Lei slipped into a wide bending stance and glanced at his opponents. Bo Huang was to his right, standing straight and looked like a coiled spring, Mei-ling was in front of Lei and had her hammer held in her right hand to the side and was cracking her neck.

Hakaishin was to his left and was…enthusiastically stretching.

'Calm down. Remember your training, remember your goal!'

As soon as the flag descended Lei stomped on the ground and bent three large rocks in front of him.

'He who strikes first has the advantage.'

With a wide sweeping kick he propelled a boulder to each of his opponents. Not forgetting defence he then bent a thick wall between him, Bo Huang and Mei-ling. Even if they struck back at him it should give him enough time to deal with the clown.

He quickly spun to where Hakaishin started.

'Now I'll show…..huh? Where...'

" **DYNAMIC ENTRY!"**

Lei spun around a split second before he was smashed in the face and sent sailing over the edge. The last the thing he saw before the ring faded from view and darkness took him was the blonde's cheeky grin.

* * *

 **(A few moments ago)**

Naruto cracked and popped his joints as he finished up his stretches.

'Shukaku, wish me luck on my first fight here.'

' **Good luck sir, but if I may, you know you're going to destroy them even with your abilities restricted right?'**

Naruto began moving to his first vict-opponent as soon as he could. He was the weakest fighter in the group and he really only wanted to fight the better ones.

'Well you never know buddy, combat is all about surprise and unexpected developments.'

As Naruto got closer to the boulder that was intended for him he moved so it was between himself and the kid and in doing so blocking the boy's line of sight. At the last possible second he leapt up onto the boulder and propelled himself forward and into the air further.

At the peak of his jump he was able to survey what had happened in the first few moments of the round. The woman was closing in on the old man after dodging the kid's boulder and smashing through the old man's own sizable rock directed at her with her hammer and bending.

The old man had taken control of the kid's boulder and had redirected it to the woman and was backpedalling at the same time towards the centre of the ring away from her.

In the few seconds he had taken all this in he had silently flipped over the head of the kid, just as the boy spun to his direction, and onto the wall the boy had bended behind.

With great pride he bestowed the gift of one of Guy-sensei's signature technique's on the lad.

" **DYNAMIC ENTRY!"**

Naruto watched the boy briefly as he fell.

'Then again you're probably right Shukaku.'

Yes, this was going to be a fun world.

Quickly dodging the boulders directed at him from his opponents in the centre of the ring, he leapt up onto the wall and ran along its length towards the other fight taking place.

The woman was trying to get as close as possible to the old man. Trying keep him from utilising his best bending forms while smashing through his attacks and defences with her earth bending and war hammer. The old man was continuing to back up and strike out as much as he could while erecting defences as he did.

Naruto flipped, weaved and slid along the wall dodging the rocks that came flying at him as he closed in.

It spoke to each of his opponent's skill that even as they engaged each other they were still aware enough of his approach to test him out and see if they could take him out before he got close enough to be a problem.

Dodging over another boulder and jumping down off the wall Naruto took off at a sprint throwing two fistfuls of kunai as he did.

The woman spun her war hammer around and deflected the knives while the old man bent a boulder in-between them briefly stalling their exchange.

Naruto was close enough now though. He slammed his hand on the ground and mentally called out his move.

'Earth Technique: Great Mud River!'

The ground became a torrent of mud tripping up his competitors and sending them sliding towards the edge. Naruto continued his sprint over the mud, not stopping for a second, the torrent speeding him up as he kept his footing with chakra.

The women righted herself first and slammed her hammer into the ground, slowing her down until she regained her footing.

Naruto sprinted right past her.

The old man finally got his feet firmly planted and bent a solid slab from the mud underneath him and noticed the blonde heading straight for him. Reacting as quickly as he could he bent a pillar of stone straight at the blonde hoping to stall him for a moment till he could line up his defence.

Naruto slipped around it like a breeze.

The old man had no time to react as Naruto spun into a rising kick that lifted him off his feet. Before he started to fall, Naruto grabbed him and threw him the rest of the way over the edge.

As Naurto watched the old man disappear into the water below he made sure to keep track of the woman behind him.

She wasn't moving.

Huh? Was that a giggle?

Naruto looked behind him at the woman who seemed to barely be able to contain her laughter.

"Uh…are you alright? You didn't hit your head at all, yeah?" Naruto asked.

The woman looked at him directly in the eyes all the while trying to stifle her giggles.

"It's just…ha ha…your clothes…..ahhaaha…your personality all scream 'Look at me. I think I'm a big deal.' and because of that I completely ignored you in favour of the stronger looking opponent."

She was smiling at him now with one hand on her cocked hip and the other pointing her war hammer at him. "But that's completely on purpose isn't it? Have the two stronger opponents focus on each other while you take out the weakling. Then you move in for the kill. You were competing even before the round started. Man, I haven't been played like that in a while! And hiding the fact that you were a bender right up into the finals was pretty dirty. You won't mind if I use that sometime do you?"

Naruto was right. The woman in front of him was the strongest out of the three he was fighting.

The old man had better form and could probably do some serious damage if allowed but he wasn't used to **'fighting'** and the kid was just starting out.

The woman in front of him knew how to fight. She was a strong earth bender in her own right with more chi than even the old man. She just wasn't as skilled in forms. Instead of letting that weigh her down she had taken to wielding her war hammer in conjunction with her bending. For opponents well versed in close quarters she would use her wide destructive bending and for ranged specialists she would close in. Observant too, she had picked out a little bit of his style after all.

She also understood that sometimes fighting was about things other than skill and strength. Her current outfit was proof enough. By dressing the way she did she would direct men, especially young men, away from trying to cause her harm, either consciously or not. It all explained why she went after the old man so quickly.

Unfortunately for her he lived with kunoichi. He knew all the tricks of the trade and had used that to his own advantage.

When he didn't reply the woman continued "What I don't understand is why you passed me by just now? It would have been a lot easier to just tag me with one of your blades as you passed." She finished with a hard stare.

Naruto squinted at the woman with a seemingly confused look while scratching the back of his head.

The woman watched as Naruto looked at her before turning to the side and standing in a thinking pose, then another pose to the other side…..then another with his back completely to her all the while making a low humming noise.

Just when she was getting impatient, Naruto spun around.

"Yeah that's exactly what I did! Of course! I'm brilliant so of course I knew all that stuff was going to happen." He said while nodding with his eyes closed.

The woman startled slightly and looked at him with a surprised expression.

"And the reason I didn't finish you off wasn't because I forgot. No. No it defiantly wasn't. It was because…..um…uh…..the old man was close to the edge so I had to get to him fast!" he finished loudly.

The crowd, which had been quiet till this point, (They were mostly hardened criminals after all) dissolved into varying degrees of laughter.

The woman blinked a little before gaining a hard look.

"Is that so?"

She crouched into a bending stance with her war hammer resting on her shoulder.

"My name is Mei-ling. What's yours?"

'She's not buying it….clever girl.' Naruto thought.

"Naruto."

"Well Naruto, prepare yourself!"

Twirling her war hammer around Mei-ling smashed it hard into the ground. A miniature earth quake followed. Large, jagged rocks rose from the earth and the ground shook. As the path of destruction quickly closed in on Naruto he crouched and placed a hand firmly on the earth.

'Earth Technique: Mud Wall!'

The earth answered his call and came to his defence becoming a wall of earth ten feet tall and eight feet wide.

Mei-ling continued her assault, moving backwards with each bending form. She bent three boulders, one after the other, sending the first two around each side of the wall. The last and largest one she sent straight down the middle hoping to catch him off guard and smash through his defence.

When the final boulder smashed into Naruto's wall it caused a large cloud of dust and debris. Mei-ling watched the cloud for a moment before two long black wires with kunai attached to them came shooting through the top of the cloud. One came directly at her and she barely had the time to smack it to the side. The other stuck into the ground about five meters in front of her.

Naruto came shooting out of the dust hanging onto the wires.

Mei-ling smashed her hammer into the ground twice and shot two boulders at the suspended blonde. Naruto in-turn threw out his other wire, the one that she had knocked away he had pulled back, down to her right side and pulled himself out of the way of her airborne projectiles.

As Naruto touched down in front of her, way to close for her liking, she bended the earth beneath her and raised herself up on a wide pillar of stone.

When Naruto made it to the base of the pillar he jumped onto it and through both of his wires to the top. They slammed into the pillar and he pulled himself the rest of the way up.

Noticing this Mei-ling swung her hammer in an arc in front of her cutting off the piece of earth his kunai was attached to.

She was too late.

Naruto swung over the top, sprinted and easily cleared the small gap that had separated them thrusting out at her with a metal rod he had pulled out from somewhere. Mei-ling backpedalled and redirected his attack to the side with her hammer.

She barely had time to think after that.

Reacting on instinct and experience it was all she could do to keep up with the onslaught that Naruto unleashed.

A maelstrom.

That was the only thing that described it.

He struck at her from seemingly everywhere. Every angle, every one of his limps he utilised and she was starting to take some blows.

Naruto observed Mei-ling as he picked apart her defence and dodged her sloppy attacks. From what he understood the average bender excelled in long to mid ranged combat. There were always the exceptions but essentially a bender needed room to land a blow with their element. Benders were still formidable without their bending as well. The forms still had enough power in a strike to do some damage.

However to a shinobi like him who thrived in spontaneous hand to hand combat without any real style? Let's just say to beat a bender without exerting to much effort was to be as close as possible.

Mei-ling was doing very well against him so far though. If he had to guess it was because she learned to fight with her fists first and bending after. This was probably why she was able to keep up with him at his current speed. He couldn't go to fast because there was an audience. There wasn't a whole lot he could do because of that to be honest. While he was fairly confident he could take on almost anything on this planet without too much trouble he didn't need, or want, that kind of attention just yet.

'She's getting tried.' Naruto thought.

Mei-ling had given up trying to get away from him and was now taking more and more strikes to the body just to try to get a hit in.

'She must be thinking that as long as she gets one good shot in she'll have a chance.'

Naruto was impressed that she was still going after taking so many of his blows. He had seen enough though.

Mei-ling swung a little wide and Naruto closed the gap.

Thrusting his pole at her abdomen, he blinked as Mei-ling caught it between her arm and body.

Mei-ling grinned in pain. She was tired and hurting all over but had played it up to get him to give her an opening.

'Got you, you slimy bastard!' she thought.

Bringing her hammer around with her free hand she brought it down hard.

Naruto calmly let go of his weapon and leapt to her left. Another rod flew out from his sleeve and he jumped back towards her as he reared back for another strike.

Mei-ling griped her hammer with both hands and swung at the suspended blonde with a roar.

With blurred eyes from the pain, she felt and heard more than saw the impact of her hammer on the blonde.

While her hammer continued on behind her due to the force of her swing, Mei-ling blinked rapidly to clear her eyes.

'What? Where is he?!' she thought.

Naruto looked at the back of Mei-lings head with a smile. When her hammer came within striking distance he had lightly pushed off the head with his feet and flipped over her landing on her hammer as it came around behind her. Even if she had clear vision she would have been hard pressed to spot the move he had just made. The move wasn't fast, defiantly within the realm of possibility here, it was just extremely sudden. Like a fly buzzing around you suddenly changing direction and disappearing into your blind spot.

'You did well.' he thought.

With that in mind he finished it with a strike to her neck.

As Mei-ling fell to the ground unconscious Naruto caught her, jumped down off the pillar they had fought on and took her to the healers.

" **Ladies and Gentlemen the winner this evening is Hakaishin!"** the announcer proclaimed.

The audience came roaring to life.

Naruto spun in a circle with his arms raised and began celebrating with the crowd.

* * *

Bo Huang sat and watched as the match came to an end. After the blonde had tossed him out he had made his way to the bleachers to see the fights conclusion. He knew the blonde would be the last one standing. That last look in the blonde's eye he had been able glean before he had been kicked was impossible not to understand. The kid was going to win and that was that. The absolute conviction in those orbs was startling.

Bo stood as the boy began to celebrate. He had seen enough. Heading towards the exit he saw a woman about his age heading in that direction as well. The woman noticed him and bowed politely. He returned it and offered his arm to her. Accepting it gracefully they left the combat area.

"You were very good in there tonight." The woman commented.

"Thank you, but not as good as some it would seem."

The woman shook her head. "You've got a few years on that boy. Youth is something that experience is hard pressed to overcome."

Bo smiled "That is kind of you to say."

"That boy and you are both so well-mannered so it would really only come down to something like that anyway."

Bo paused, and then chuckled quietly for a moment.

"Was it something I said?" the woman asked.

"No. Just thinking on a conversation we had before the match." He replied.

* * *

Naruto walked into the control room of his ship and placed his prize money on the command table.

After counting his winnings Naruto turned and sat in his command chair.

"Shukaku I want your opinion on something."

" **What is it Naruto?"**

"In the worlds I have been to so far there hasn't been a proper civilisation yet. Sure there where natives with intelligent life but nothing like this planet yet. Because of this I didn't feel too bad with getting involved and changing the course of those planets development. However this planet, this one has nations." Naruto spoke with a serious voice.

"So my question is this. Should I involve myself with the affairs of a developing planet? Is it right to alter the very course that these people should rightfully set for themselves?"

Shukaku was quiet for a long moment before replying.

" **I am not experienced enough to give an answer with absolute confidence but I will say this. If it is you Naruto, this world or any other should be lucky to have you intervene in their lives. You have led your people away from their destructive path and given them a goal they can all push onward with. You are a commander worth following."**

Naruto stood with a soft smile.

"Wow buddy, I didn't think that at all. Are you sure you aren't overestimating me too much? What if I screw something up?"

" **You might very well do something like that but your screw ups will still be better for the people of this world then having them screw themselves over."**

"And what about overestimating me?"

" **It's what you're all about Naruto. You do the impossible because of your dreams and goals. If you want it you take it and I will assist you in every way I can."**

Naruto nodded. "I will do my very best. I will take your faith in me and use it to fuel my dreams."

Heading back to the command table he began to pull up some files on the computer.

"First we have to put this war on hold but I already have a plan for that. I'm going to need my other half."

Because Naruto was extremely busy he always needed to be in more places than he was able. Clones certainly helped but they had a time limit and their own restrictions. The key to solving this problem came when he was digging around in the Fourth Shinobi War archives. Mu the Second Tsuchikage had a technique where he split himself in two. So he went to the earth kingdom and perfected the technique in a week. Yeah, clones are awesome.

With this technique in his arsenal he could put his other half in a key location in the universe and then they could branch off with clones from there. It cut his power in half but that was fine most of the time. He was plenty strong at half. To pull off this one though he would need that little bit more.

The display came to life and he was greeted with his own visage.

"Yo. How's it going on your end?" Naruto spoke to his doppelganger.

His other half scratched the back of his head and replied.

"Pretty boring to be honest as there isn't much out this way. What about you? The fact that you're contacting me means something good or bad has happened."

"Bit of both. Gonna need a lot of our power for this one."

"Sweet."

Both blondes closed their eyes and when the opened them they were standing side by side.

"Gotta love that Flying Thunder God." They said in unison.

As they re-joined, Naruto heard a commotion coming from the display.

"WHERE THE FUCK DID HE GO!" a loud voice came through the sound system.

"I don't know ma'am! He got a call from someone and then he was just gone!"

'Uh-oh.'

The next moment the display was filled with another individual.

"Y-Yo Mariko-chan, y-you doing well, ya?" Naruto said nervously with a small wave.

Onyx eyes glared at him from the beautiful, yet incredibly terrifying at the moment, visage that was one of his closest generals.

"You split yourself. Where are you?" she spoke calmly but with a sharp edge to her voice. "How did you manage to slip away? I checked all our ships. There is no-way you could have gotten away on one without me knowing. How?"

Naruto began to silently signal to his A.I. to cut the connection all the while sweating nervously.

"What is this frequency? Shukaku? You made a new one. Right under my nose." Mariko finished with an accusing tone.

"It's not what you think Mari-chan."

"Yes it is. You developed a brand new stealth ship with your authority and purposefully hid it from everyone." Mariko said as she pulled up files while she spoke to him.

"How are you accessing those so fast?!" Naruto exclaimed in alarm.

"We developed a new protocol for when you pull stunts like this."

"Give me a break! Who would agree to something like that?!"

Mariko gave him a deadpanned look.

"Right. Dumb question." Naruto mumbled out dejectedly before perking up once more.

"I left half of me with you this time though. That's got to count for something right?"

Mariko nodded as she continued to type while she held his gaze. She knew if she looked away he would be on to her tracking him. "That's true, which is why I'm not currently sending every fleet we have after you."

Naruto clenched his fists before he gained a hard look and said, "You can't always rely on me you know. You guys have got to do things for yourself. I won't be around forever."

Mariko scoffed, "You're kidding. Without you we risk going back to the war loving people we used to be. You're immortal and stop trying to change the subject!"

Naruto softened his gaze slightly, "See what I mean? You're practically commanding the entire fleet on your own right now to hunt for me. Have confidence in the system we created. Have confidence in yourself. I do." He concluded with one of his signature foxy smiles.

Mariko stopped typing as he smiled at her.

Naruto cheered on the inside once he saw the blush rise in her cheeks.

"Y-you….you asshole. That's not fair." She mumbled weakly.

"Also I put some new systems in place so it will take you a looooonnnggg time to track me." He cheekily concluded.

"What? Oh you son-"

With that the connection was cut.

Naruto released a breath he didn't realise he was holding before spinning around and yelling at his A.I.

"What the hell took you so long huh!?"

" **What do you mean?"**

"What do I MEAN?! When I do this!" he made a slight cutting motion with his hand that he had been doing for most of the conversation, "What do you think it means! It means the bitch got the drop on us, my backs against the wall; this is not a test, HELP ME! HELP! ME!"

As Naruto glared at his ship he suddenly had a realization and groaned.

"It's one of those protocols I don't know about isn't it?"

"… **..No?"**

"YES IT IS! Of course it is."

Sighing Naruto turned back to his plans and made the final touches.

* * *

Naruto double checked the large seal array in front of him and finished preparing the various food and drink on the table he had assembled on the edge of the seal. He was currently in the centre of the largest dessert in the earth kingdom. It was the only place he could get away with potentially summoning something as big as he was.

Cutting his palm with a kunai he began the long string of hand signs he had to complete. When he had finished he held the last hand sign and began generating his chakra. Once he felt he had a sufficient amount he slammed his palms on the ground and called out, "Summoning technique!"

Old habits sure died hard.

A massive cloud burst into existence and was quickly blown away by the dessert wind revealing his summons.

"Hey guys, been awhile."

The towering forms of the one, two, four, five, eight and nine tailed beasts all drew their attention to the blonde below them.

"Naruto!" the Ichibi called down to him. "What's the occasion then? You haven't called this many of us in a while."

Naruto shrugged, "We've had things under control. Still do, but I wanted you guys to check out this new planet I found."

The tailed beasts looked at their surroundings and Naruto felt them reaching out with their respective chakras.

"Interesting. The energy here is pleasant." the two tails spoke while seemingly smelling the air.

"I can feel some powerful beings here." the five tails added its own two cents.

"OOOHHHH! I wanna fight them! I haven't had a good rumble since we took on that massive space creature together Naruto!" the four tails bellowed.

"If Naruto wanted that then we would have been called closer to a fight. Isn't that right Naruto?" the eight tails interjected.

"That's right." Naruto confirmed. "While I agree that's it's been too long since we have been able to go nuts, I want to take a different approach with this situation. With that being said could you guys use one of your smaller forms? I don't want to attract too much attention just yet."

A large cloud of white smoke obscured the hulking behemoths before the hot dessert wind brushed it out of existence.

Gone were the massive forms of the beasts replaced by smaller forms that wouldn't stand out as much in a metropolitan area.

Well, for the most part.

The one tailed beast now resembled a human female with just a shade lighter skin tone then his own. Sandy shoulder length hair framed a cute rounded face. The female wore a light brown kimono that had black seal designs covering most of the back. The obi was white as were the layers underneath. Brown sandals covered her feet and she wore lots of jewellery with large gemstones imbedded in them.

That was all well and good except for the 'small' issue of how she wore the kimono. With a deep cleavage and exposed legs, the one tails was proudly putting her assets on display. With bust that rivalled only the most well-endowed women Naruto had ever met and creamy, plump but somehow firm legs, the vision before him would undoubtedly stand out in any crowd. Her golden eyes that resembled her tailed form didn't exactly scream normal either. Naruto knew that this form of the one tails liked to be called Tsuru.

The two tails had also taken the form of a woman however she stood out mostly in another aspect. She also had striking features, what with her long blonde hair in a high ponytail, thin sky blue eyes and a soft complexion that you couldn't help but feel safe when in her presence. Her form was mostly hidden by a navy blue captain uniform consisting of a jacket, slacks and black boots. Across the jackets left side were several medals. It was the ears though that stood out. They were more pointy then regular humans and had blue and black fur on the tips. This form retained the name of Matatabi.

The four and five tails had a much less drastic change becoming smaller versions of their beast forms. Son was the size of a large gorilla while Kokuou was the size of a Shire horse. Naruto was fairly sure that these forms would blend in with the creatures from this planet. He would just say they were an undiscovered species.

The eight tails also held the form of a woman although Naruto had never seen this one before. With chocolate coloured skin and dirty blonde hair, cut in a bob style, Naruto guessed the features she was using were pulled from the cloud countries kinsmen. She wore a white tube top that pushed up her considerable "assets", a tight black pencil skirt that extended to just above her knees outlining her plump behind with slits on either side exposing her mile long legs and a black jacket with various pockets was worn over the top. Her eyes were yellow and painfully reminded him Karui's own. The high heels on her feet also painfully reminded him of Tsunades own combat heels.

All these forms had stemmed from Tsuru. At one of their meet ups they arranged to catch up and see what was happening with each one of their group Tsuru had busted in with a bottle of sake that was as big as her. Drunk off her ass, she had proceeded to spend the rest of the night partying like there was no tomorrow and bragging to her family just how awesome it was to be a human.

Ever since then whenever Naruto met up with one of them the bijuu would have various new forms that they were experimenting with. They changed their genders, looks, sizes and into other animals as well. The human forms were one hundred per-cent human. How did he know? Well it was embarrassing to say the least so he preferred to not think about it.

It looked like they were going to make this pretty hard for him as they had all busted out the forms he felt the most nervous around. Who could blame him? Each woman was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. It didn't help that they knew he found them attractive in their human forms and the more bold ones, like Tsuru, would purposefully flaunt themselves around him.

Thankfully Kurama had only ever had a male form. He could count on him to-

Goddamn it.

Standing in front of him was another beautiful woman. Long orange hair done up in an intricate hairstyle with decorative pins helping to hold it all in place. She wore a tight fitting black dress showing off her hour glass figure. The top of the dress resembled a kimono with loose sleeves that ended at the elbow. It had a plunging V-neck exposing her cleavage with a red lining on the bottom of the dress, end of the sleeves and the V-neck. From the waist down the dress looked almost like a second skin ending at just underneath her shapely derrière and exposing her firm legs. She wore black stockings that ended mid-thigh and red kunoichi heels. Her eyes were the same as always, red with a vulpine slit and Naruto could see her slightly longer fangs as she smiled at him.

"You were right Tsuru." the Kyuubi said with her hips cocked and arms crossed underneath her bust accentuating it even more. "This IS fun. I haven't seen him this uncomfortable in a while."

"Right?" Tsuru said as she walked, hips swaying sensually, over to Naruto. "It's tough these days to get him nervous but for some reason our forms make him a self-conscious teen again."

Tsuru grabbed Naruto by the arm and pressed up against it. "Haven't you had like a dozen children? What's wrong Naru-kun? Been too long?"

Naruto gazed down into her eyes trying his best to avoid the tantalizing globes currently resting on either side of his arm.

"There is some brand new food and alcohol from this planet behind me."

He instantly saw her face light up before making a beeline straight for the table with Son Goku right behind her. As the others made their way towards Naruto, Matatabi spoke up.

"You really know what to do to distract her."

"Well, it's not the first time let's be honest." Naruto said as he turned to them. "Thanks for coming guys. As you know the seal was a voluntary summons but I was still surprised so many of you guys came. What are the other guys up to? And do you want me to call you another name in those forms?"

"I'm feeling Nyuuki for this one." Hachibi said heading to the table to try and get some food and drink before it all disappeared.

"Call me Kumiko." Kyuubi said watching the scene playing out before her from next to Naruto.

"From what I understand Naruto," Kokuou spoke lying down on the sand a little ways away from all the commotion. "Saiken, Isobu and Chomei are having the time of their lives on a massive forest planet that the third fleet discovered."

Naruto smiled "I see."

Heading to the table himself Naruto declared loudly. "After this I'll run my plan by you but for now," he said grabbing a large bottle of alcohol and taking a swig. "Let's have some fun!"

* * *

Wu Qi was not having a good couple of days.

First a whole squad of his men had gone into the village nearby and gotten pissed out of their minds. The men of the village had pushed back and it had almost been a complete blood bath. He had just negotiated peace with their elder for spirits sake. Then he had gotten a message from the supply ships that they had been delayed by several days. To top it all off some of the tents had been stolen from and there was no evidence of who had done it. Now he had to deal with some crazy man that had made his way right in the path of his marching troops. The man had supposedly been spouting nonsense and refusing to let his men through.

Placing his helmet on, but leaving the face plate, Wu left his command carriage and headed to the front of the procession. Wu knew that Fire Nation armour was enough to intimidate most people but he tried to do his best to get matters to a peaceful resolution. War was long. The fewer battles he had the better but he wasn't an idiot.

"Sergeants take some men and secure are flanks." He called to the grouping of men around him. He didn't want them potentially getting caught in a trap.

As he approached the front of the column he began to hear the commotion. Quickly making his way over he finally saw the man blocking the road.

Dressed in ragged torn robes, with a scraggly grey beard, withered face and bald head the old man certainly looked like a nut job. He waved a long staff around in a circle around his head keeping the Fire Nation soldiers trying to grab him at bay.

"You don't understand! This isn't something to be taken lightly! They are pissed off!" the old man bellowed to the soldiers.

Wu gestured to one of the men and asked him, "Who is he talking about and why hasn't he been dealt with?"

He didn't like harming civilians but if they didn't get to their position a lot more people were going to die. Their strategy rested on them making it to the ambush point.

"We don't know who he is sir." The solider responded and looked over at the old man nervously. "But look at that staff he has."

Wu looked closer and raised an eyebrow. That staff was only seen with Fire Nation priests and holy men. Well that explained it then. His men didn't want to risk angering the spirits or ancestors by burning the man.

Making his way over to the old man he waved for his men to stand down.

"I am the commander of the thirty-fifth battalion of the fire nation, Wu Qi, who are you?" he didn't want to anger the man but there needed to be some progress made in this situation.

The old man looked him up and down before shaking his head and saying "It doesn't matter who I am what matters is what I have to say."

Turning to face him head on, the short old man continued in a loud voice, "Listen well! The spirits are moving. They are fed up with this war and are now taking matters into their own hands. I came to warn you of this. It is too late for a lot of people but I couldn't stand by and do nothing so I had to warn as many of my countrymen as possible. Do not continue this battle or their will be consequences!"

Having said his piece the man turned and headed straight for the tree line leaving Wu in a state of bewilderment.

"Wait! What the Hell! You can't just say something like that and just walk away." Wu said as he made to follow the man.

"I have to warn more people. Pass on the message." The old man said as he walked into the woods.

Running after the man with his men running after him he ran to the forest but when he got there wasn't a whisper of the bald man.

"What in spirits name was that?" he heard some of his men say.

"He just disappeared?!"

"Was that a spirit?"

Wu clenched his fists tightly. It didn't matter what it was, they had a job to do.

"Don't lose your focus men! We need to keep moving! Get back in formation!"

The spirits didn't care about human matters. If they did, this war wouldn't have gone on for so long. However, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy at the whole situation.

The rest of their journey passed without incident. Arriving on a hill that overlooked the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom lines they positioned themselves and waited for the signal to begin. Wu could already see the Fire Nation troops on the battle field preparing to move out and the Earth Kingdom soldiers, having noticing this, were getting into formation as well.

Hopefully with their ambush the Earth Kingdoms troops would break and surrender. He really didn't want-

Oh ancestors. What in spirits name was that?!

Rising above the trees was a spirit. A massive one. How had no one spotted it?! It was orange!

The spirit had the snout of a fox knowledge seeker, that he had once seen pictures of, and large ears much like a rabaroo. It had long multiple tails waving behind it, hind legs, what looked like a human torso and deadly claws.

As he heard his men begin to clammier and cry out, completely abandoning their stealth, he knew he should command them to get it together but he himself was having trouble even moving. What was this oppressive energy weighing him to the spot? He was afraid. For a long time he had forgotten the feeling.

The spirit made its way to the middle of the battlefield, not paying either army even a glance, and lay down closing its eye's and seemingly going to sleep.

Suddenly he remembered the old man. They couldn't fight that thing! He had to get it together. His men's lives were at stake.

"Get me a komodo rhino!" he commanded to his distraught troops. "No one is to engage anyone, especially that spirit! Hold position until I return!"

He had to warn the general. The main army could not risk getting destroyed by the spirit.

Naruto opened his eyes and nodded at the feedback he was getting. At every battlefield across the globe the tailed beasts and their clones were making themselves known to the world.

How did one stop a war dead in its tracks? Well there were several ways but the one he had gone with was fear. Fear of the spirits, overwhelming power and the instincts to preserve life. He would teach them that war was not the answer and rather than debate with their leaders while the war raged on, he would stop it now.

Naruto looked up at the sky and sighed. It would be tough but he had his friends with him now. There wasn't anything he couldn't do without them.

* * *

 **Authors Note: There it is my first story chapter. Had the idea a little while ago to do a crossover with Naruto as a space traveller and coming across another universe. At first I had no idea of which world I wanted to interact with. I chose Avatar the Last Airbender because it fit and I was fairly confident tackling it. Read and Review. Flames will be ignored.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

 **IMPORTANT INFORMATION IN THE AHTOURS NOTE.**

* * *

Naruto stood in an open field and gazed up at the night sky, waiting silently. A little ways away there were several carriages and other modes of transport that he had bought with his winnings from the various competitions he had competed in across the globe. In and amongst them were the bijuu. They had decided that while they were currently using their massive bodies to put a war on hold they wanted to stay with Naruto as well. So, retaining their smaller forms, they had commandeered the transports and were currently arguing over who would get to sleep in Naruto's with him.

Some of them didn't seem to care all that much though. Like Kumiko, who made her way over to where Naruto stood in the centre of the field and joined him in looking up at the stars above.

"Why did you call them?" she said in a slightly displeased tone. "You have us and you could probably handle this whole thing on your own anyway."

Turning and moving to stand in front of him she continued. "It's also going to make it easier for your people to track you down."

Naruto drew his eyes down from the stars to Kumiko and shrugged, "Eh, they'd find me sooner or later and you know me, I like having ordinary people around to witness my greatness."

Kumiko shook her head slightly "I don't think you can call them ordinary, specials in their name after all."

Naruto grinned, "I meant in comparison to people like us."

Kumiko rolled her eyes. "Yes, that goes without saying."

"I know you don't like them being close to me." Naruto said catching her eyes with a look of understanding.

Kumiko crossed her arms and shrugged, "We've already talked about this many times. Still haven't changed my mind though."

Naruto nodded seriously. "You think they're bad for me."

"I think they're parasites." She said calmly. "They take and take and take from you, put you in difficult situations, situations that I have helped you with since the beginning."

He began to feel her mood worsen.

"Granted we started off on abysmal terms but in the years since then I have done everything in my power to make up for it." She said turning from away from him and looking to were her family was.

"I've told you once I've told you a thousand times." Naruto said with a soft smile. "I already forgave you years ago."

"That's just it!"

She was mad now.

"You're too forgiving! You take so much bullshit and just keep giving!" she said as she turned to him once more and began to poke him in the chest with her index finger. "Do you have any idea how annoying that is?!"

Naruto raised his hands in surrender. "I have some idea." he said while grinning.

Kumiko glared into his eyes for a long moment before closing hers and sighing loudly.

"You're still so stubborn."

"If I wasn't we wouldn't be such good friends."

Kumiko hummed for a moment before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him into a kiss.

It only lasted a second before she pushed him away. She watched as Naruto grew bright red.

"W-What...Huh…Kumi-" he sputtered.

"Shut up. Your smug face was pissing me off." She said with a smirk before turning and walking back to the transports. "By the way the parasites are here."

Naruto watched her as she walked away and tried to calm his hammering heart. Was she swaying her hips like that on purpose?

Shaking his head and deciding that he could deal with what had just happened later he turned back to the sky as he felt the wind begin to whip up.

After several seconds some large indentations appeared on the ground in front of him and the wind began to calm down. A split in the air appeared before it widened to reveal the interior of a ship and over a dozen figures.

As the figures stepped out onto the landing platform Naruto waved to them.

"Sup guys! I trust your trip was pleasant!"

The men and women in front of him were dressed in black and grey power suits. The suits consisted of a thick black body glove, which Naruto knew had various electronics and systems running through them, that covered the entire individual up to the chin and back of the head. Grey metal plates rested on top of the body glove and covered most of it leaving only small areas visible to allow easy movement for the wearer. While they all had the same basic helmet, a smooth grey dome with a black visor and grey face plate, the plates had varying degrees of thickness and design. Some of the larger men and women had thick plates that were sharp and jutted out from their body while some of the others had thinner and sleeker looks.

The differences didn't stop there. They had different weapons strapped to their backs, different belts, backpacks, bandoliers and pouches on their persons. Naruto knew that each container had a little surprise for any opponents they faced.

Several of the individuals glanced at each other as he addressed them while others shifted slightly. Naruto could feel their surprise and confusion. The lead male however stepped forward without hesitation and dropped to a knee.

"Naruto-sama, the First Division of Special Operations and the crew of the Hibiki have answered your summons and are reporting for duty." The man declared. Seeing their leader bowing the rest of the squad quickly followed suit.

Naruto sighed. No matter what he did his people always ended addressing him so formally.

"Get up, get up. No need to do all that nonsense." He spoke kindly. "We're going to be working together from now on so let's all try to get comfortable with each other all right?"

The leader quickly got to his feet with the rest of the squad following his example and they stood at ease.

Naruto raised his eyebrow. Man, were they antsy around him. He must have thrown them off with his personality. They probably thought he was some sort of a hard-ass and was testing them. He really needed to find the people making up those rumours and give them a good old Thousand Years of Pain. Because Naruto went on long trips, was the leader of his people and outlived most, over time people began to talk and speculate on what their great leader was really like. He needed to work on that he supposed.

"First Division huh, I've worked with you guys several times. Hey, any of you guys know of a Kenshin Uzumaki?" he asked hoping to lighten the mood a bit more.

The leader of the group slammed his right arm across his chest, saluting.

"Yes sir. He is my uncle." He stated.

Naruto's trained his eyes on the slightly shorter man and smiled brightly.

"Oh, is that so? Well, take off your helmet and let me have a look at you." He said as he moved to stand in front of the man.

The leader finally hesitated but only briefly before reaching up and unsealing his helmet. As he removed it from his head Naruto first noticed that he had the signature red hair of the Uzumaki clan. He was also young, early twenties maybe although he could be older due to his Uzumaki heritage making him appear younger than he was. With an angular face, purple eyes, sharp features and a calm expression the man had the countenance of a man in charge.

Naruto nodded "I can see a bit of the resemblance. What's your name captain?"

"Akashi. Uzumaki Akashi."

"Akashi. Your uncle and I got along well."

"Yes sir. He speaks of you often."

"Oh, all great things I'll bet?"

Akashi didn't say anything. That was a bit worrying.

"Great things, Ya? They were all great things right? Right?" Naruto said a little desperately.

After another pause Akashi finally spoke, "My uncle respects you."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT I ASKED!" Naruto exclaimed childishly while waving his arms around. "What has he told you?! Because I bet he left out a lot of how he was involved! Did he tell you about how we went to this village once that was full of alien women and all he could do-"

"So these are the First Division." Matatabi interrupted as she and the other bijuu made their way over to the group.

Seeing them approaching the squad quickly drew back up to attention.

"Commander Matatabi, we are honoured to be in the presence of you and your kin." Akashi stated.

"Captain Akashi. Your superiors speak very highly of you." Matatabi said smiling.

Tsuru ignored them completely and made her way over to Naruto. Grabbing him by the arm she snuggling up to him, resting her head on his shoulder with her eyes closing blissfully. Naruto blushed and coughed a little scratching the back of his head nervously. As the others followed behind her and made to stand next to Naruto, Kumiko paused before turning and walking up to the squad.

"You all know who I am," A statement. "So listen up. I'm only going to say this once." as Kumiko spoke some of her aura began to leak out.

The squad tensed even more and Akashi gained a hard look.

"You will give one hundred per cent to this man." She continued, gesturing to Naruto as she did. "You will do your best to keep up. You will obey him absolutely and you will love it. If not?"

Kumiko gained an absolutely predatory grin. "You will be dealing with me personally. Do I make myself clear?"

The entire squad saluted and chorused, **"Sir, yes sir!"**

Kumiko nodded, turned and made her way over to Naruto.

Shaking his head Naruto gave Kumiko a kind smile that she pretended to ignore.

"I guess with that out of the way we can get to work." Naruto said addressing the squad. "Introductions can be done later but for now there is a lot to do to get you guys up to speed."

* * *

Long Feng didn't like military meetings. He preferred working from the shadows without any spotlights shining on him. Generals had their failures publicly announced while his were swept under the rug. However every once in a while he was called to these meetings. Usually he would just get reports but sometimes things were just that urgent. Well urgent for others, all he cared about was running his city. Ba Sing Se would never fall or be influenced by the outside world. He was a little curious of though. From what he had been told something major had happened with the war outside. It concerned him that the Council of Five had been notified of the situation before he had. He would have to tighten his hold and remind them who was in charge. Blackmail usually did the trick.

Opening the door to the council chambers he glanced at the table with the Council of Five generals surrounding it. As he made his way to his seat General How spoke, "Now that we are all here let me begin."

Standing and moving to the front of the table he began, "Roughly three days ago at noon our armies were interrupted in their conflicts by the appearance of several massive spirits."

Long Feng raised an eyebrow. That he hadn't expected.

How continued, "The spirits positioned themselves in between the various conflicts and are preventing any fighting. Attempts to circumnavigate the spirits were met with failure. Every time either side tried to re-engage with the other, the spirits would intervene. Because of the size and power that the spirits displayed there were no attempts to fight the spirits themselves. There are also reports of messengers, potentially spirits themselves, giving a warning to cease fighting or the spirits would intervene. Our undercover operations have been affected as well. Smaller but still incredibly powerful spirits have intervened in those conflicts. Somehow the spirits know everything about them."

General Sung spoke up from his seat, "We must get the spirit experts and have them exorcise the beings with our army immediately."

Another general spoke, "Are you nuts? Why would we risk our men for something like that? It's not your men out there General Sung."

The general opposite him added his own to cents, "Spirits are unpredictable. They could do anything to us if they know we can't beat them."

The oldest general spoke this time stroking his beard as he did, "They haven't attacked us so far, only stopped the war from continuing."

General How nodded his agreement, "We should take this opportunity to fortify our lines and prepare. The Fire Nation cannot wait for long and hopefully they will destroy some of their armies trying to kill the spirits. However we cannot sit ideally by and do nothing as well or risk appearing weak. It is indeed quiet the conundrum."

Long Feng finally spoke, "What about the messengers?"

General How tensed and turned to face him, "What about them?"

Long Feng shrugged, "I suppose it's only natural that you brutes would overlook something as important as that but I suppose you do not have the experience that I do in dealing with spirits."

Ignoring the glares he was receiving Long Feng stood and continued, "You seem to think that these spirits are only mindless beasts but I can assure you that one of the key things to being a spirit is their sharp intelligence. What is extremely worrying is that so many are working together and not only that seem to be organized. Spirits typically stay in their territory and only come out when they are provoked. This feels like a plan that is being led by an extremely intelligent spirit."

Long Feng felt the room become tense but carried on, "However the most intriguing thing is the messengers. If they really are spirits why would they bother warning us? Why not just wipe out both our armies before returning to their territories?"

Every general was listening to him intently now.

"Do you think it's the Avatar?" General How asked.

"It is possible. However there are no records of any avatar being able to command so many spirits so I have my doubts. Also why not declare himself with the spirits arrival and state his intentions clearly? With that many spirits backing him up on top of their own power there would be no need to hide. No, I believe it is an unknown party and that is worrying me." Long Feng stated calmly. He hated not knowing.

"But let me once again direct your attention to the messengers. For whatever reason the spirits are only interested in stopping the war, and not only that warning us of their involvement, all of this information tells me is that whoever is behind this might be open to negotiation."

"Why would they want to negotiate?" General Sung asked quizzically.

"They probably don't but that is the avenue that we should pursue. Information is key and right now we are severely lacking in it."

* * *

Zhao stood on the prow of his ship feeling the salty sea breeze brushing past him as he gazed at the island that was fast approaching. He didn't know the name of it. It honestly it didn't matter. All he knew was that it had a stronghold that was a key supply line for the earth kingdom and it needed to be in Fire Nation hands.

The admiral he was under had told him to lay low until they could get a grasp on the situation that was happening at every battle ground around the globe but he had ignored the man. He was a fool. It was only a matter of time before Zhao took his place. His victory here would only ensure that time arrived all the more sooner. He wasn't afraid of the spirits. They had abandoned the world of men except for only a few places. This world belonged to them now. Even if they were getting involved now there was no way that this little operation of his would be interrupted. He had told no-one of his plans and it would be lightning fast. By the time any body found out about it he would have already won.

He signalled his men to prepare for battle and began to make his way to the command centre while the other two ships followed suite. As they got within range the catapults began to let fly their fiery projectiles. They would soften up the earth benders before his strike teams moved out from his ships.

Why wasn't he hearing any impacts?

Several of his men began to gasp and point towards the island. Quickly turning around and running back to the front Zhao saw what could only be a spirit.

Standing on the shore line was a massive shadowy figure with glowing eyes and mouth. It had massive black wings shaped like a butterflies but unlike a butterflies colourful wings these wings looked like ugly writhing shadows. The spirit was dropping the catapult shots in the water as it had seemingly snatched them right out of the air.

"Captain Zhao, I thought you said that the spirits wouldn't interfere!" Zhao heard one of the captains from the ship to his right yell out to him.

Turning to look and yell back at the man Zhao froze. Standing behind the captain was a spirit of pure lightning. It was only slightly taller than the man but still had those terrifying glowing eyes and mouth.

Zhao watched as the spirit lashed out and struck the man shocking him till his eyes rolled and he fell to the ground. The spirit then dashed across the deck of the ship like a literal bolt of lightning shocking everyone before shooting into ship. No doubt not stopping until it got every crew member.

The ship he was on suddenly came to a halt throwing him to the ground. As he dared to look up he saw that the spirit that was on the shore had somehow made it to them at a ridiculous speed and was now holding the three ships in place with its arms and body.

Zhao jumped to his feet and backpedalled while shooting fire at the spirits face. However before the bolts of fire could reach it the ocean rose to its defence. The pillar of water morphed into a water dragon that swamped the deck of his ship and swept him into the conning tower.

Banging his head Zhao felt his mind begin to swim. He glanced over at his other ship and watched helplessly as a single shadowy spirit dashed across the deck decimating his men.

It was strangely beautiful the way the spirit seemingly danced around his men's panicked attacks. If he was in his right frame of mind he wouldn't have thought that way but he was losing consciousness fast.

Noticing something in front of him Zhao looked up. He saw that one of the spirits was in front of him now with the bigger one looming in the background. What a terrifying sight.

Zhao grinned a bloody grin.

"Fucking spirits man."

He then went out like a light.

* * *

The four shinobi that were tasked with dealing with the three war ships brought all the men they had subdued onto the decks of the ships. No one had been killed. Naruto had been very clear with his instructions. No killing and they had to make sure that their opponents thought they were spirits. That was simple enough once he told them that illusions worked on these guys.

After they finished making sure everyone was accounted for, the shinobi turned the ships towards the direction of the Fire Nation fleet and set them off. On the deck of each ship they left a large contained fire to make sure they were spotted. Once that was completed they dashed off to their next objective.

* * *

On the shore of the island the earth kingdom soldiers stationed there were all gathered around the one man with the spyglass.

"What are they doing now?" one asked.

"Their leaving." The man with the spyglass stated with slight awe in his voice.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

Another one of the soldiers turned towards the barracks and declared loudly, "I'm going to go pray and thank them."

Everyone followed after him.

* * *

Naruto looked up at the top of the tower that was protruding out of the sand below. Wasn't very impressive at a first glance but he knew that wasn't true. Underneath the sand was a massive labyrinth with aisles and aisles of books filled with knowledge.

Kumiko, Nyuuki and Tsuru were with him as was Akashi and five of his squad.

Apparently this place had tons of information that he needed. It really was incredibly convenient.

Leaping up onto the window ledge Naruto glanced at the library below before tilting forward and dropping off the ledge.

Landing lightly on the walkway bellow, Naruto spun around and marvelled at the library. The rest of his group quickly followed him down.

"Just look at this place guys!" Naruto exclaimed. "I've never been a book person but this place makes me want to just sit down and dig in!"

As he said this, the sound of flapping wings thundered around them and a large owl swooped up from underneath the walkway landing in front of them.

"I am glad you like it. Now get out." The owl spoke.

Naruto turned and smiled at the bird spirit. "You must be Wan Shi Tong. This is my first time meeting one of you calibre so if you will excuse me if I do anything to offend you right off the bat."

"You….You and those women behind you are not fully human are you?" Wan spoke as he cocked his head and bent down to Naruto's eye level.

Naruto nodded, "Good catch big boy. It's no wonder you're a spirit that's known for his vast knowledge. What I don't get is why you restricted yourself to knowing ten thousand things in your title? Was it because it sounded cool? I bet it was because it sounded cool."

Wan Shi Tong raised his head back and blinked.

"It doesn't matter who you are…."

"Just gonna ignore that huh?"

"…I will not permit you to use my library."

Tsuru stomped around Naruto and glared up at the owl.

"Why the hell not bird brain?!" she demanded loudly.

"Tsuru!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Because over the years only people who want to destroy have come here seeking knowledge on how to defeat their enemies. The last ones that came even burnt a section of my Library and made off with knowledge on how to win their little war." Wan Shi Tong said as he rustled his wings and his head began to stretch slightly.

"Well how do you know we're like that huh?!"

"Tsuru that's enough!" Naruto said firmly.

"But Naru-chan he has no idea-"

"That's what I'm going to talk to him about." Naruto said as he walked up to her and rested a hand on her shoulder before smiling a foxy smile. "Thank you for being so concerned for me."

Tsuru blushed brightly before lowering her head and going back to stand with her sisters.

"To answer your question, spirited one, I can see the weapons on the humans behind you, weapons of violence and death." Wan Shi Tong spoke calmly as his head retracted and wings rested.

Naruto turned to the owl spirit and shrugged. "You got me there but I suppose you wouldn't believe me if I told you that ninety-nine point nine per cent of the time my people don't kill?"

"I do find that very hard to believe." Wan Shi Tong stated sceptically.

"How about I show it to you then." Naruto stated seriously.

That got the owls attention.

"What do you mean?"

"How about I show you my intentions, my people and why I would like to read from your great library."

"Naruto!" the bijuu exclaimed.

"Why would you bother sharing your life with this spirit? What if he betrays your trust?" Nyuuki asked worriedly.

"Because I can feel it," Naruto said turning to them with a smile "I can feel his nobility as a spirit of knowledge and his love of the world he lives in. Tainted only slightly after the long years he has had to endure people coming and disrespecting his library."

Turning back to the spirit Naruto grinned up at the owl and said, "If you don't like it you can turn us away and I won't object but if you do I would like to make you an offer."

Wan Shi Tong was quiet for a moment.

"Very well, what do you want me to do?"

Naruto reached his hands out and Wan Shi Tong placed his head in them. Naruto then rested his forehead on his and closed his eyes and Wan Shi Tong followed suite. They stayed like that for a long while. After several minutes passed Naruto released his head and the mighty owl seemed to glow a little.

"Amazing, truly amazing, I am humbled." Wan Shi Tong stated with a slight bow.

Naruto smiled at the owl. "Hope you didn't mind me picking your brain a bit as well? I'm not really that good at this technique." he said scratching the back of his neck.

"Not at all, you and your kin are welcome any time in my library. Now what is this offer you spoke of?"

"Ah, that's right. How would you like it if you and your library travelled with us across the galaxy?"

"I would be honoured. However I would like to move my library where ever I wish."

"Of course big guy, we're not going to be owning your library, only giving it a place to travel with us sometimes."

Wan Shi Tong nodded his large head, "Yes that would be nice, to discover knowledge from your and other worlds. Would you like me to take you on a tour off the library? I will be able to locate the information you need a lot faster."

"Sure! Come on guys let's go!"

As the group began to move through the library, with Wan Shi Tong leading them with great enthusiasm that Naruto matched to a tee, Akashi moved to speak to Nyuuki who was one of the bijuu he was more comfortable with.

"Is he always able to win people over like that?" he asked with a little awe in his voice.

Nyuuki smiled and nodded, "He was doing it even before I met him."

* * *

He awoke as he usually did, in a cold sweat and with his face throbbing painfully. Getting up from his bed he headed to the sink and splashed some water on his face before getting dressed and heading out. On his way through the empty ship he could hear the snores of the crew echo down the corridor. After grabbing some food from the kitchen he headed to the deck. He ate silently as he watched the sun rise, its warmth seeping into him and giving him additional energy for the day ahead.

Placing his bowel to the side he stood and decided that now was a good a time as any to get some training in. He began moving through the basics first without using his fire just yet. As he picked up the tempo the fire began to make its way into the imaginary battle he was having with his opponent. As he moved, twisted and flipped around he began to think about his opponent, how they would fight, an earthbender, a waterbender, and an old man with extreme power over all four elements, a young fire bending girl, a powerful fire bending man.

"Prince Zuko!" he heard someone call him out of the trance he was in.

Zuko turned and noticed his uncle standing in front of the entrance to the conning tower with his ships cook cowering behind him.

"What is the matter?" he asked, although to anyone else other than his uncle it sounded more like a demand.

His uncle sighed. "Prince Zuko, please be more considerate of your surroundings as you train. If I hadn't been here you might have burnt the cook."

Zuko looked at the quivering cook and responded hotly, "They should know by now to stay out of my way."

Iroh made his way over to the prince saying, "That is true but I don't think you were aware of how powerful your flames were just now. They reached all the way over to us. Very impressive, what were you thinking about Prince Zuko?"

Zuko turned his back to Iroh and clenched his fists.

"Nothing, I wasn't thinking of anything."

"Is that so?" he heard his uncle say quietly before speaking a little louder. "The control room has informed me that we will be arriving at the port to resupply within the hour."

Zuko nodded, "I see. Let's try to get some information about the area as well. I don't believe we have docked there before."

"It is one of the more recently established Fire Nation bases." Iroh agreed.

Zuko turned to his uncle, "I am going to train a bit more. Will you watch my forms?"

Iroh smiled and spoke so only him and his nephew could hear, "Of course Zuko."

* * *

After Zuko's ship had arrived at the port Iroh suggested that he let the crew take some time off to enjoy. His gut reaction had been to refuse but it had been a long trip and even he wanted to get off the boat and feel the ground under his feet.

As he and his uncle walked through the local market on their way to the Fire Nation barracks Iroh noticed a poster.

"Prince Zuko look, there is going to be a play later this evening and before you say we can't go may I ask you to take a look at the poster." Iroh said gesturing to said poster.

Zuko looked at it and raised his eyebrow.

It read: 'The tale of the nine tailed fox spirit and the man who loved her featuring waterbending, earthbending and firebending displays!'

His uncle continued eagerly, "It would be a good opportunity to see some other bending styles don't you think?"

"How are flashy bending moves going to help me in a fight?" Zuko asked sceptically. His uncle was just trying to make him go see a play.

"Ah, but if you remember Prince Zuko the Avatar is most likely an airbender. Flexible and acrobatic bending would be the basis for all his forms and what better way to learn how to counter them than from acrobat benders." Iroh said with a gleam in his eye.

Zuko almost sighed audibly. He wasn't going to back down on this was he?

Turning and continuing in the direction of the barracks Zuko called out over his shoulder, "If we have the time it might be worth investigating."

He heard Iroh hurrying to catch up with him whistling a merry tune as he did.

* * *

When they arrived at the barracks they found it mostly empty and the one solider they did find hadn't bothered to tell them what was going on only directed them to the communications tower.

"I should have punished him for his disrespect." Zuko angrily grunted.

Iroh looked up at him and shook his head. "It wouldn't have done any good. There was no one around any way so it didn't matter and you showed great control over your actions."

"He's going to talk about it."

"He would have made something up any way if you had punished him. This way there is a chance that he will forget about the interaction altogether."

Zuko grunted a little. He was right. He usually was not that he could admit it openly.

They arrived at the tower and met with the captain of the barracks who was with his communications officer.

"It is an honour to be in your presence General Iroh and you as well Prince Zuko." The captain began with a bow.

Doing his best to ignore the fact that the man clearly had more respect for his uncle then him (Men from the army typically did and at least he had been polite enough to include him.)Zuko asked the question that had been bothering him since he got here. "What has happened? Where are all your men?"

The man looked at them with surprise. "You mean you don't know?"

"We have been at sea for almost a week now." Iroh responded.

"Know what?" asked Zuko a little urgently now. What had happened to his people?

The solider glanced to his communications officer before replying, "It's the spirits, sir."

Both men then proceeded to tell the banished prince and his uncle the story that was spreading like wildfire across the elemental nations.

Iroh stoked his goatee and seemed pensive while Zuko tried to get the facts straight.

"You are sure that they aren't attacking only blocking?" Zuko asked.

"Very sure sir, I just got back from dropping my men off at the front. The spirits are just sitting there with both our militaries camped around them and from what I was told it's like that all across the border."

Zuko turned to his uncle, "Do you think that they would interfere with our objective?"

Iroh was silent for a moment before he responded, "It is difficult to say. The spirits have never marshalled out like this before. I am afraid I am at a loss."

Zuko could tell that Iroh was holding something back but he needed to get to the reason why they had originally come here.

"I need copies of your maps from this area."

The captain looked to his officer who shrugged.

"I can have them ready for you by tomorrow evening." The officer replied.

Zuko nodded, "We will return for them then."

As they made their way back towards the ship Iroh turned to Zuko, "So…..how about that play?"

Zuko groaned.

* * *

Zuko sat with most of his crew in the stands as the theatre filled to the brim. He couldn't believe how happy his uncle was chatting with the crew and just having a good time. He supposed this was a good way to thank him for all his help without having him look weak in front of the crew.

As the curtain rose and the show began Zuko looked at the fancy costumes and wondered if he really was going to learn anything about having to fight against certain styles of bending. His fears were unfounded however because as the play continued he was stunned at the way the actors bended their elements. They danced around the stage and did flashy moves but there was a definite lethality to their forms.

Zuko heard the crowd, including his crew, swoon and cheer at the beautiful women in the play and he couldn't help but agree. They moved elegantly, didn't miss a beat, and dressed in beautiful dresses. He could hear his uncle over the din cheering to his heart's content.

After the play came to a close a large man with a mane of white hair tied in a ponytail came out, identified himself as the writer and bowed with the actors thanking everyone for coming. The crowd cheered and gave a standing ovation.

Zuko made to leave but his uncle persuaded him to meet with the playwright as he wanted to speak to the man about his play. Zuko was curious about the performers bending anyway so he thought that he might as well find out where they learned it.

As they made their way towards the backstage they were stopped by several men.

"No one is allowed backstage." A man with red hair and purple eyes said sternly.

"We would just like to complement them on their performance, is that too much to ask?" Iroh said with a smile.

The man looked ready to refuse them but stopped when the large white haired man stepped out from behind the curtain and placed his hand on the bouncers shoulder.

"It's alright Akashi, I will speak to them." The man said with a large smile.

To Zukos surprise the guard actually bowed to the white haired man.

"As you wish Lord Jiraiya." The man spoke respectfully.

Iroh noticed as well, "Oh, you are a Lord?"

The man, Jiraiya, laughed jovially and waved his hand.

"No, no they just call me that sometimes."

"They must respect you a great deal." Zuko spoke surprising his uncle.

"I'd like to think so, although sometimes I can't help but feel that it's some kind of running joke." He said as he patted Akashi on the back and chuckled a little.

"What's all the commotion Lord Jiraiya?" a melodious voice echoed from behind the curtain.

"Just some folks that wanted to talk about the play my love." Jiraiya replied.

The curtain opened once more and the beautiful dark coloured woman with blonde hair that played one of the noble women in the show stepped out wearing a bath robe that exposed her prominent chest to the night air.

The woman made her way to Jiraiya, wrapping her arms around him and snuggling into his arms.

"I hoped it was enjoyable for you?" She said in a sultry tone.

There were several emotions that Zuko had to process and as such he was having difficulty replying. Thankfully his uncle's composure was astounding.

"Of course, I must say that your performance was particularly entrancing." Iroh stated with a smile and a slight bow.

The woman beamed and offered her hand to Iroh, "Such a charming man. Be careful Lord Jiraiya, it looks like you have some serious competition."

Iroh took her hand and kissed it lightly while Jiraiya let out a boisterous laugh.

"I should warn you, sir, I am a very jealous man." Jiraiya said good naturedly.

Iroh raised his hands calmly, "I could not hold a candle to you good sir. Your writing and skill with the pen would woo any woman."

Jiraya and Iroh laughed together and Zuko suddenly realised that there was now two of his uncle before him.

After their laughter had calmed down Jiraiya spoke, "Ah but I believe you have me at a disadvantage. You know who I am but I don't know who you are."

"Forgive the late introduction, this is Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation and I am General Iroh of the same." Iroh said gesturing to Zuko then himself.

"I see."

Zuko could not read what the man thought of that. His face had stayed the same as it had before.

"Well I suppose it would be incredibly rude of me not to offer you some tea. Care to join me?" Jiraiya said throwing a thumb over his shoulder at the tent behind him.

Zuko resisted the urge to face palm. The man had hit the nail right on the head at every turn with his uncle.

"We would love to, wouldn't we Prince Zuko? We have some free time don't we?" Iroh asked with hopeful eyes.

Zuko nodded crisply, "I suppose so." He didn't mind being in the couples presence. Their gazes were unjudging and they didn't seem prejudice towards them at all.

As they stepped behind the curtain Zuko was surprised at how colourful and bright the place was. The staff greeted them warmly and quickly prepared a spot for them at a table.

What was a little odd was that other than the couple in front of them everyone was wearing their stage masks.

As the tea was being prepared and they got settled in Iroh and Jiraiya began to talk to each other about the play. As they carried on Zuko noticed the women that were starting to surround the playwright.

The dark skinned one was sitting on his left while an orange haired woman draped herself on his right. A sandy haired one then made her way to his feet and sat in front of him. A little while later a blonde woman made her way behind his chair and sat down, draping her arms around Jiraiya from behind. They all wore their face masks and wore their bath robes loosely.

Zuko felt someone sit next to him and he had to stop himself from jumping up.

Sitting next to him was a brunette wearing her face mask and an elegant dress. She had a cup of hot tea in her hands and was offering it to him.

Taking the cup from her with a nod of thanks Zuko noticed that there was another woman next to his uncle that was pouring his tea as well.

"I am a little sad that I cannot show my play at the Great Fire Nation Theatres," Zuko heard Jiraiya say as he drew his attention back to the conversation. "Because of the war and the nature of my play I doubt I will in my life time but I make do with the colonies and hopefully one day my play will find its way into those magnificent halls."

"Fate may yet smile on you. You never know what she has in store but I believe that your play will do well any place you set up." Iroh said kindly.

"You are very gracious. It is true that I want my play to be viewed by as many people as possible but it is difficult these days to travel with my entourage. Akashi and his men are a great deterrent and my girls can bend with the best of them but sometimes men will do anything to get what they want." Jiraya said seriously as he patted the legs of the women next to him.

"Indeed." Iroh agreed sympathetically.

Jiraiya shrugged, "It's not all bad. If I stick to the main roads and pay for protection I could head to a lot of places, I just worry sometimes that my expenses might go to over board. The first few shows have been well received though so that's a good sign."

Zuko then said something that surprised even himself.

"What if we ferried you along the coast?"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow and Iroh turned wide eyes to him.

"Nephew…."

The prince ignored Irohs slip of the tongue and pressed on.

"It wouldn't be for free. You would have to do your part around the ship but I wouldn't be asking for payment. You also wouldn't have to worry about being attacked and we were thinking about heading south anyway." He concluded hastily.

Jiraiya withdrew his arms from the women around him and leaned forward onto his knees.

"There is something else isn't there?"

Zuko nodded firmly, "I'm after someone that I need to defeat at all costs and your performers bending styles are the closest I have seen to theirs. If you take me up on my offer I would like to spar with them on a fairly regular basis."

Jiraiya leaned back into his chair and thought for a long moment before widely smiling.

"You have got yourself a deal Prince Zuko." he said rising from his chair and offering his hand to the young man.

Zuko rose as well and grasped the offered hand firmly.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" Jiraiya declared loudly before letting out a loud laugh.

* * *

 **Authors Note: Second chapter done. Thank you to all the people who reviewed the first chapter. It really motivated me to get the second one out as quickly as I could. Now for a little something to say thank you. I'm giving you the opportunity to be part of the First Division! Well a character you would like to be in it. Some basic guidelines: Give me their name, description and skills. If you want to give me their personality that is very welcome but not a necessity. Back stories as well. It would be tough for you to come up with one based on the information I have given you so far but if you want to have a crack go for it! Please leave it in a review if you are interested or if you are uncomfortable doing that you can PM me. Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome but flames will be ignored.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

* * *

Iroh stood on the deck of the ship as he watched the crew load up their supplies. Today they would be leaving the port town and heading out to sea with Jiraiyas entourage on board with them. Iroh had initially been surprised when Zuko had made the proposition to take the traveling play on their trip down the coast but after hearing his reasoning he supposed it made sense. Zuko would do anything to restore his honour. Iroh wasn't sure Zuko knew exactly what he had signed up for though.

The sun was just beginning to rise but the market was already busy with shop owners preparing their stalls for the day. They had decided to stay the night however Zuko had insisted on an early start the next morning. He wanted to be ready to welcome their guests onto the ship and get started as soon as possible. Iroh decided that he wanted to help speed things up as well so here he was at the crack of dawn helping Lieutenant Jee with organizing the preparations.

Just as they were finishing up Iroh heard a commotion coming from the market. He and Lieutenant Jee made their way to the railing to see their passengers make their way through the market on their way to the ship. Jiraiya was stoping as the group continued on and was talking with the people of the market, laughing with them, signing objects presented to him and just having a good time. At the front of the procession were two individuals that Iroh hadn't seen before but was having difficulty believing he might have missed them.

The first and more noticeable male was tall, really tall, close to seven feet in fact and was built like a brick shithouse. The man looked middle aged had lightly tanned skin, light brown eyes, short shaggy flaming red hair with matching sideburns and wore a dyed black leather tunic under a silver metal breastplate that was bent into the shape of a man's pecks and six pack and, from what Iroh could tell from the shape of short black cloak the man was also wearing, also had small shoulder pads attached to it. The man wore shin and arm guards that matched the breastplate with dyed black leather underneath each piece as well. He wore black armoured boots but all of that paled in comparison to what the man was carrying on his back. Exposed to the elements and at close to six feet in length was a massive sword.

Could that even be called a sword?

As the group drew closer Iroh was able to get a better look at it. The blade was half as wide as the man himself, which was saying something, and about an inch and a half in thickness. It had a triangle point, was sharp on both sides and in the centre he could see some kind of a design engraved into it. The handle was surprisingly short considering the size of the blade and was wrapped tightly in black leather. The guard was merely a piece of unpolished metal that wrapped around the blade twisting down onto the handle and the pommel was a ball of metal an inch in diameter.

The second male looked to be close to his own age and standing around Zukos's height. The man's long white hair reached his waist, was tied in the middle, and rested on his back. The man's skin was only slightly pinker than his hair and he had sky blue eyes with some interesting red lines on his eyelids. The man was wearing what Jiraiya had told him was a kimono. It was navy blue with lighter blue and white cloud patterns, interlocking with each other, sewn into it. The pants were white and he wore the traditional white socks and sandals. Again from what Jiraiya had told him.

Also because of their discussions he was able to identify that the swords the man was carrying were katanas. Other than their size the katanas were the same in every way. The swords had a dark, almost black, blue scabbard with the handles wrapped in material of the same colour and a gold guard. The pommel was the same gold with tassels, also of the same colour, hanging off the ends of each of the handles. The man had three of them on his person. The two shorter ones were tucked into his belt, which was the same colour as his tunic, while the longest one was strapped to his back. Now that they were making their way up the ramp Iroh saw that there was yet another, smaller than the rest, blade attached to the man's lower back.

The first man's face was boxed shaped and he had a strong square jaw with a surprisingly happy and content continence. The second man had more of an angular face and his continence was peaceful and calm.

As the group came up to Iroh and Jee, Akashi made his way to the front of the possession and bowed in the Fire Nation greeting.

"Greetings General Iroh, we have arrived a little earlier than anticipated. I hope we haven't caused any inconvenience?" Akashi spoke respectfully.

"No, not at all, we were up fairly early today so we managed to get most of our preparations done." Iroh said with a dismissive wave and a smile.

"Can I give you and your men a hand?" The booming voice of the tall red haired man cut through the conversation.

Iroh turned his attention to the two newcomers. "No, that's alright. You are our guests after all."

The large man was suddenly within Iroh's personal space and was leaning down looking intently into his eyes. "Didn't part of the deal with boss entail we do our part? Please, let me assist you." He said eagerly.

The white haired man in the blue kimono next to the giant sighed loudly. "It would be easier if you just allowed him to do it. Once this goat gorilla sets his mind to something it is incredibly difficult to dissuade him." The man finished by patting the large man on the arm.

Rather than being offended or put off by the comment from his companion the large man nodded enthusiastically.

Iroh felt a bead of sweat drop down the side of his head. "Alright, alright, if you insist so much there should be something that you can do." Iroh said with his arms raised in front of him in a placating manner, putting a barrier between the giant and himself.

Iroh turned to Jee and asked "Do you think you could help direct this gentleman, Lieutenant?"

As Jee relaxed a little from becoming incredible tense due to the red haired man's sudden movement he responded with a slight nod. "Of course General."

The giant stood straight and turned his gaze to the Lieutenant. "Alright, let's go!" and with that the man ran and jumped over the railing from the ship to the dock with Jee hurrying to catch up.

The white haired man turned to Iroh once more and bowed low with his arms tucked into his sleeves. "Please forgive my idiot associate. He means well but even after all this time has trouble clicking with certain social normalities."

Iroh chuckled lightly and placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulder, lightly tugging him out from his bow. "Please do not worry. An honest man like that is hard to come by these days and it is refreshing."

The man rose and cracked a small smile. "You are kind and very wise General Iroh. Many people mistake my friend's enthusiasm for arrogance and ill intent but not you. My name is Wukong but you may call me Wu and the moron is called Sun. It is a pleasure to meet you." he concluded offering his hand.

Iroh grasped and shook it with his own. "I am pleased to meet you as well Wu."

The rest of the traveling play had assembled on the deck of the ship and Iroh noticed that at some point during the exchange Akashi had slipped away, grabbed a few of his group and was helping the crew load up alongside Sun.

'I didn't notice him leave at all. That boy is incredible skilled.'

Iroh had noticed that a lot of them were. They were performers of course but only the most skilled dancers and performers came close to what he had witnessed at the play. He was even seeing it now just as they moved around on the deck of the ship. Their light steps that barely made a sound and the absolute control they showed in their movements was astounding. He had asked Jiraiya where the man had found such talent and all the man had said was that he couldn't divulge his secrets as a talent scout.

As Iroh concluded his thoughts on the matter, Jiraiya came up the ramp carrying a large box of supplies and chatting with those near him.

"Oh, hey Iroh how are you today?!" Jiraiya called out as he put his box down and made his way over to them.

"Good morning Jiraiya." Iroh greeted with a slight bow of his head that Jiraiya returned.

"It's not bad isn't it?" Jiraiya said turning towards the rising sun and closing his eyes briefly feeling its warmth washing over him and warming the cold night air.

Iroh and Wu turned towards it as well and all three shared the peaceful moment.

"Look at you old geezers just waiting to drop dead." The three men heard a seductive and raspy voice pipe up from behind them.

The men turned to Kumiko who was standing behind them with her hands on her hips and a cocky grin plastered on her face.

"Speak for yourself you ancient hag." Wu shot back with a smirk. "Whose soul did you suck out this time to keep your hideousness at bay, you witch?"

Kumikos face contorted into a snarl and she took a couple steps towards Wu. Wu strode up to her as well until they were close enough that Kumiko's considerable chest was bumping up against Wu's and their foreheads were mashed together.

"You've been getting cocky these last couple years, Wu." Kumiko said with a challenging tone. "Need me to remind you just who's in charge around here?"

"Just because you have known Lord Jiraiya the longest and you shake the most tail doesn't make you the one in charge, Kumiko." Wu shot back.

"Come on guys. Let's not cause a scene." Matatabi, if Iroh remembered correctly, said as she made her way over to them and pushed them apart.

As the two dragged Matatabi into their banter Iroh leaned over to an amused Jiraiya and asked, "Are you going to intervene?"

Jiraiya turned to Iroh with a grin, "No way. Usually it's me their all ganging up on. I cherish these moments. Besides it's all in good fun as they usually don't go too overboard!" Jiraiya finished a little louder than was necessary and Iroh noticed the threes bickering drop down a few decimals.

The two men watched the exchange for a moment before their attention was pulled to the conning tower door opening and Zuko stepping out from it. The young man scanned the deck for a moment before spotting Jiraiya and his uncle together. He made his way over to them glancing at the now quiet argument taking place that had pulled Nyuuki, Tsuru and Son into it as well.

"They aren't arguing about the ship are they?" Zuko asked a little harshly but iroh noticed the slightly nervous tone that the boy let slip through.

Thankfully Jiraiya didn't seem to take offense. "No, no, they just like to bicker sometimes. Strong personalities tend to more often than not and those seven have some of the strongest I have ever met."

Zuko's shoulders relaxed a little before he spoke again, "I have had the all of the rooms in the ship that are available prepared for you but it seems like there may not be enough of them for all your people so we cleared a section of the cargo hold out so that anyone who doesn't get one can camp there."

"Alright," Jiraiya nodded then called out to his assembled staff, "Let's get settled in guys."

* * *

As Naruto closed the door to his room and dropped his transformation he let out a loud sigh of exasperation. "So? Why are you guys bunking with me?"

Akashi, Sun and Wu were setting up their spots around his bed with nonchalant airs about them.

Akashi stood straight and faced Naruto. "Section four of the Maelstrom Directive states that: Any group that works under or around supreme leader Naruto Uzumaki must assign at least one individual to be with him as much as possible to avoid…"

"Ok, ok, I get it. Damn." Naruto interjected with a sweat drop.

Sun made his way over to Naruto and clasped him on the shoulder sending a small shock wave through his frame.

"Kokou and I will be the best bunkmates Naruto. We will give you the most comfortable experience ever in the history of bunkmates. Do not worry." He said with a smile and a thumbs up.

"You've already forgotten that I am Wu right now and you are in your human form haven't you?" Wu chimed in from his spot on one of the cots. "I like this one. It's mine."

Sun looked at his palm and blinked for a few seconds before laughing and looking back at Naruto.

"Sorry!"

Naruto squeezed the bridge of his nose and let out another sigh. "This is one of the reasons why staying in your animal forms would have been a bit better."

"And not be able to contribute in this little adventure of ours?" Wu chuckled lightly.

"That's not what I….(sigh)…your right we should all be able to have some fun." Naruto smiled. "I'm glad to be bunking with you guys."

After they finished settling in Naruto noticed the rest of his tailed beasts converging on his room.

"I'm going to check on the ships!" and with that he disappeared.

He loved his family but God they could be taxing sometimes and after spending weeks in close proximity and them making scenes whenever they could with the first division looking on Naruto just needed a second without them around.

* * *

Naruto appeared on the bridge of the Hibiki startling her captain and crew.

Naruto had issued most of his fleet's ships to be fitted with a Flying Thunder God seal on the bridge. His fleet was strong, crazy strong. With chakra assisting them his people's technology had taken massive leaps. In conjunction with the various powerful elements that their explorers and scientists had discovered and harnessed (With steps taken to maintain the balance of their little corner of the galaxy.) the ships of his people could take on almost anything. However that didn't ease his nervousness one bit. One of the most important things he had learned from his life as a ninja was that there was always something stronger out there. So with the seal on at least the flagship of each fleet Naruto felt much better knowing that if shit hit the fan he could be there to help in an instant.

Every time he used the Flying Thunder God Naruto couldn't help but marvel at the technique and the seal that made it all possible. It only used the chakra required to send the size of the object through, distance didn't matter and it was instant. Literally instant! There were very few things out there that could counter something like that and as a shinobi that could finish a fight in one move that was all it took sometimes.

But that got boring after a while. Naruto almost never let his guard down but he tried to drag his recent fights out for as long as possible. As such his observational and sensor abilities had gone through the roof. For Naruto to be able to drag his fights out without worry he had to understand his opponent in very little time.

"Lord Naruto." A voice cut through his musings.

Naruto turned to the ship's captain and bridge crew that had stood and were saluting him.

"Ah, don't let me stop you guys. Keep doing what you need to but I would like to talk with your captain for a bit if that's all right?"

The captain turned to his crew and signalled to them to continue their work.

As Naruto made his way over to the captain he took in the man's appearance. He wore a charcoal jacket that was open exposing his grey undershirt with his sleeves rolled up that he was casually trying to straighten out. He also wore matching grey military pants and black shoes. He also had various medals across his left chest pocket. Around his neck he wore a red scarf. His hair was a very light purple and his skin was a couple shades darker than Naruto's own. It was several inches long and spiked up and back save for a single long lock of hair that somehow jutted out and to the side covering his right eye when he looked at certain angles. He had an angular face and golden eyes. Young for a captain of a massive cruiser but Naruto had become Hokage around that age so he really couldn't say anything about that nor did he want to.

The man's chakra level was strong for a marine man as well which was a little surprising. As the various fleets and armies had developed over time they could mostly be categorised into two groups each with their own commander structure. One was the Special Operations Division that consisted of more chakra powerful individuals that thrived on the stealthier and technique side of shinobi conflicts. Most Kage, ANBU and Jounin level ninja gravitated to that side of the military. While they did use technology to enhance their abilities they didn't use them as much as the other branch of the military. The other side consisted of chunin level and below individuals. This side made up the vast majority of the military and fleets and they used their technology to balance out the power difference with their Special Ops counter parts. The marines and soldiers followed the more military side of being a shinobi and they mostly engaged in open conflicts to great effect. Both sides of the military worked in harmony (Naruto had put in a lot of effort to make sure everyone got along) and he had yet to see any opponents they came up against last longer than a couple of days.

There were always outliers like the man in front of him of course. For whatever reason, the man before him had decided that rather than working as a Special operative the fleet was more suitable to him. Despite the amount of power he had at his disposal.

"Yo captain! I've come to check out your ship!" greeted Naruto brightly.

"Yes sir. I am Commander Orga Itsuka. Captain of the Hibiki, its crew, marines and all those housed inside." the man saluted.

Naruto nodded and clasped the man on the shoulder.

"Did my little ship fit in your hanger alright?"

"Yes sir. We had some spare room in the hanger that we were able to fit it in without much issue."

"Good, good." Naruto turned and watched the bustling bridge members for a moment before once again turning to the captain.

"So what have you got on the Hibiki? In terms of personnel I mean."

"Two-thousand crew members and seven-thousand military personnel including but not limited to marines, fighter pilots, Mech personnel and at least a couple dozen of each subdivision that the military has." Orga listed off the top of his head.

"I see."

A silence settled over the two men before Orga spoke up once more.

"If I may ask something sir?" He asked tentatively.

"You may."

"Why did you call my ship? We are pretty versatile but lack the strength of most of the other battleships."

"This planet doesn't require that kind of fire power. This one is probably overpowered enough. Also I thought you were interesting."

"Sir?" the captain asked but rather sounding confused he seemed to be confirming something and Naruto smirked.

"Yeah, you probably get it a lot. Why the military?" he asked curiously.

Loosening up a little Orga shrugged, "I have more of a mind for it. I feel more comfortable here."

"You certainly have done well. You sort of remind me of an old friend of mine." Naruto said as he browsed the man's profile on the captain's bridge computer. As Naruto looked through the recent field reports he noticed that some idiot had tried to attack a small outpost on an island in the earth kingdom and was stopped by a Spec Ops Akimichi squad leader and his team.

Turning back to the captain Naruto offered his hand.

"Let's get along, Orga!"

After a moment's hesitation the captain took the offered hand.

"Of course Naruto." He said smirking slightly.

Naruto smiled brightly. There he was, the man hiding behind all that military discipline and posture.

* * *

Kurama yawned loudly sending vibrations through the sky and earth. This was one of the few times that Kurama was fully conscious in this large body. Once the tailed beasts had figured out that the armies stationed around them weren't going to try anything they transferred their minds to the bodies they had keeping Naruto company only leaving behind their senses that would alert them to any movements the armies decided to make.

Kurama sniffed the air. Whatever that was smelt pretty good. It was coming closer to.

Cracking open one large eye in the direction of the earth kingdom army Kurama noticed a small caravan making its way out of the camp surrounded by guards.

Once the caravan had pulled up about half a mile from Kurama a single carriage broke off from the group and with a small contingent came even closer.

'Oh? This could be interesting.'

* * *

As they drew closer to the massive spirit Po couldn't stop his hands from shaking uncontrollably. The creature's teeth were longer than his entire body and thicker than his considerable gut. When the military had come to his restaurant and told him that the fate of the earth kingdom may rest in his hands he had no idea what to think. He should have refused them. He should have…no. He had to do this. He was the best meat griller in the whole province and if he couldn't do it then no one could.

Then the spirit opened its eyes and lifted its head and the shaking was back. The soothsayer that they had hired made her way to the front and called out in a shaky voice.

"Oo-ooh G-great spirit, we come in peace and with offerings to appease you!"

That didn't sound right. Did the old woman even know what she was doing?

The whole company waited with bated breath. The spirit lowered its head in front of the soothsayer and Po saw the woman begin shaking. The spirit then exposed its massive teeth and the woman fell back in fear and began praying loudly.

A low rumble then shook the field and Po suddenly realized that the spirit was laughing. It thought it was funny. The guards quickly made their way to the soothsayer and began to drag her back when there was a sudden flash of red light near the creatures head.

Out of the dimming light stepped a humanoid figure and the entire group had a one collective thought.

'What the fuck?!'

* * *

Kurama continued to grin as he looked at the cowering individuals in front of him. The form he had used was one of his first. It was basically a carbon copy of the second hokage with his hair and the fur on his armour a dark red rather than grey and white as the only difference.

"I accept your offerings little humans."

* * *

Zukos back hit the deck of his ship hard but he used the momentum to roll to the left and sweep out his leg sending a wave of fire out at his opponents. They dodged it of course but that is what he expected from them at this point. With a quick two step he sent his flames out as two whips of fire that moved and honed in on his three opponents.

This fight was something that Jiraiya had come up with. To simulate fighting the Avatar, Zuko was fighting three opponents at once to simulate most of the elements that the avatar would wield. If Zuko could tag one of the opposing team he would win and they would move on to another set of training.

Zuko observed as his opponents changed positions and the water bender stepped forward and pulled the water from the ocean blocking his fire whips with his own water ones.

His opponents worked together extremely well. Jiraiya had given them simple instructions. Work as one, only one member could attack and defend at a time, change up elements as often as they could and be as close to each other as possible. This was also to simulate fighting the Avatar and so far Zuko really felt like he was fighting only one individual. It really was impressive. And Zuko had come to understand something alarming. He wasn't even coming close to getting them. Not only was their team work exceptional they were also very fast. The dodged almost everything and launched attacks from seemingly impossible angles.

As the two sets of whips battled for supremacy over the other his opponent suddenly broke off the engagement and as one all three began a mad dash straight at him. Zuko slammed his fire down on top of them but the fire bender of the group leapt up and blasted them away. It halted there advance however as the other two stopped to wait for their team mate and Zuko moved forward a couple of steps and summoned as much chi as possible into a single blast of flame at his three targets with a resounding roar.

It was the earth bender this time that stepped forward as soon as the fire bender touched down. They had brought dirt with them from the land and spread it out across the deck of the ship and using it the earth bender condensed the earth into a solid slab underneath them sliding it to the side,the three of them riding it safely out of the flames reach and forward towards him.

Zuko shot three bolts of flame at the fast approaching group holding his position. The earth bender broke of pieces of the slab and matched the bolts blow for blow causing a dust cloud. Zuko back pedalled a little and took a solid, low stance breathing deep. They would come from the top. They really liked coming from there.

He was surprised however when three figures came straight through the cloud encased in stone on a collision course straight for him.

He had seen the technique before however and was prepared. He only had to hit one so he moved out of the direction of the other two before bringing a flaming fist down on the last.

As he broke through the rock Zuko was stunned to see that it was empty.

Three light taps sounded out right behind him and Zuko flipped of the ground spinning in the air in an effort to shoot off a bolt of fire with his fist and to get some distance.

They were already in his guard however.

Grabbing him by his breastplate the young man in front of him slammed him into the ground and quickly grabbed his arm to get him into a hold.

Zuko growled in his throat before an idea came to him. He breathed deep and turned his head to his subduer and spat out a torrent of flame.

The man atop him calmly rolled to the side and in an impressive display of strength pulled Zuko with him, rolling him as well. As Zuko felt his face slam down onto the deck of the ship and his arm twist behind him he heard his uncle call out.

"That's enough!"

Immediately Zuko was released and his three opponents stood bowing low and backing away.

Zuko quickly stood and righted himself fuming silently.

The first time he had been defeated by Jiraiyas group he had stormed off to his quarters and blasted the wall till it was bright red. That time he had been defeated in about thirty seconds so it was somewhat understandable. After some calming words from his uncle Zuko had gone down and apologised gruffly to Jiraiya and his opponents. Jiraiya had laughed loudly and professed that he had been worse when he was around Zuko's age. It was his next words however that had struck a chord in Zuko.

"Even though I was untalented and always fighting guys stronger than me I kept getting back up and eventually I was the strongest person in my whole village. That's what it's all about, taking a hit, learning to take it, learning from it and fighting back. That's how you win."

So Zuko did that. Every day he would come down and get his ass beat, learn from it then do it all the next day. That had become his routine.

Zuko turned and made his way over to his uncle and Jiraiya who were casually sipping tea next to the conning tower. There was also a small crowed of ship crew and play members that had grown over time.

"An impressive improvement Prince Zuko." Iroh praised.

"Yeah, you're learning a lot quicker than I used to." Jiraiya agreed.

"I still am not getting closer to defeating them though." Zuko grumbled. "At this rate I don't think I'll be able to defeat even the Avatar's spirit animal."

"Well the Avatar is the most powerful being around. People make mistakes though and that's what you need to look for. Improvise with your shortcomings and exploit any mistakes made by them to high heaven and back. Get in their head and keep yours calm." Jiraiya rattled off.

"What brought that on Jiraiya? You have never offered advice before." asked Iroh.

Jiraiya shrugged, "I haven't been in a good scrap in a while and I suppose I'm getting antsy. Besides I like routing for the underdog and I think someone with only one element going up against the most powerful being on the planet falls under that category."

Zuko looked up at Jiraiya with surprise.

He wanted him to win? That was new. No one had ever said that to him about his quest before. Even his uncle had never voiced that he wanted Zuko to defeat the Avatar.

It was…..nice.

* * *

 **Shorter than last time but I wanted to get something out. Submissions are still welcome for info on that read the AN on chapter two.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

 ***WARNING SPOILERS FOR LEGEND OF KORRA AHEAD***

* * *

The large halls echoed with her even footsteps as Azula responded to her father's summons and made her way the throne room. Today she was finally going to be put on the war council. It was about damn time too. She was smarter than all those dimwits put together and everyone knew it. Except for her father of course, but she would catch up soon enough. She was playing the long game after all. As she arrived at the doors that led to the great hall however she was surprised (but didn't show it outwardly of course) when the members of the council began exiting before she could even reach for the handle.

If she wasn't here to be given a seat then why had her father summoned her? Did it have something to do with the stalemate going on?

She passed the leaving generals, who bowed to her as she passed, and made her way into the grand hall. The Fire Lord Ozai was standing with General Shu speaking quietly in the centre of the room. The rooms usual wall of flames was absent with the only light illuminating the hall coming from the various lanterns throughout the room.

Seeing Azula approach the Fire Lord dismissed Shu with a wave of his hand.

"You called for me Fire Lord." Azula said kneeling.

"Stand up." Ozai commanded as he moved to stand in front of her. "I have an assignment for you."

* * *

Zuko shot up out of his bed in surprise, feeling the sun at its zenith in the afternoon sky.

He had slept in till noon? How was that possible?

He winced slightly and clutched his aching chest. Yesterday's practice had been a little more trying than normal. He had wanted it that way but he supposed he had needed a little more sleep than usual. But how had the nightmares not awoken him? He had been tired before and they had still been able to….

He hadn't had one. That was…..amazing.

How? Why?

He was broken from his self-reflections by the faint sound of feminine laughter.

Quickly getting dressed he left his quarters. As he walked through the halls of his ship he found not a single individual. It seemed something was happening on the deck so he began to make his way there.

When he opened the door that lead from the conning tower to the front of the ship he was stunned. He didn't know what he had been expecting but this was certainly not it.

It seemed to be a beach party, just without the actual beach. There was a large pool that was filled with several people, a volleyball game had been set up, others were sun tanning to the side and a bar had been set up that the rest of the people present congregated around. What surprised Zuko even more was that most of his crew was involved as well. The musicians of his crew had joined up Jiraiya's own and were performing at the helm.

"It's not fair!" Zuko heard a feminine voice cut through the commotion from the volleyball court.

Looking over he saw Tsuru (He thought that was her name) standing in Jiraiyas personal space and poking him in the chest.

"You can't have Sun on your team! It's too unfair!" she continued hotly.

Jiraiya had his hands on his hips and was smirking down at the smaller women.

"You should have thought of that before challenging me to a match Tsuru-chaaan." He said dragging out the honorific slowly.

"How was I supposed to know that Sun would want to play and you would win the coin toss on top of that?" Tsuru exclaimed scratching her head furiously. "Curse you and your ridiculous luck!"

"You can still pull out you know?" Jiraiya continued playfully taunting her. "I can see why you would admit defeat. I'm too much on my own as it is."

"As if! I'll smash you and your fucking luck down your throat you old geezer!" Tsuru exploded making a gesture that Zuko didn't know but was convinced was extremely rude.

"Girls get over here!" she called out.

Zuko saw Jiraiya turn several shades paler as he quickly reacted, "Hey, what the hell? You can't do that. We're alternating picking teammates. Cheater!"

As several other women in striking swimwear (in some styles that Zuko had never even seen before from his various trips to Ember Island) made their way to the makeshift court Tsuru crossed her arms under her chest pressing her otherworldly globes together and smirked up at Jiraiya. "What? Are you scared of a couple of women Jiraiya-samaaa?"

"Terrified and you know it!"

"Prince Zuko!"

Zuko turned to the member of his crew that had addressed him and looked him up and down. The solider was in a simple pair of swimming trunks and was hurriedly placing his drink on the ground. The man then quickly righted himself and stood at attention. The rest of Zukos men finally noticed him and hurriedly began to prepare for what was undoubtedly going to be one of the Prince's infamous outbursts.

"Oh, Zuko!" Jiraiya called out as he jogged over to him. "Great timing, your uncle told me that you're great at volleyball. Come give me a hand."

Zuko silently followed Jiraiya as the man pulled him towards the net. Once they were right outside the court Zuko paused and turned to his crew.

"At ease and as you were." Zuko spoke calmly.

The crew was left dumbfounded.

* * *

Naruto panted lightly as he watched the score master change the point card once again. They had been at it for a while now. The girls had won the first game with his team taking the second and they were dead even now at thirty points each, dragging out their overtime.

He glanced down at Zuko who was panting hard, bent over with his hands on his knees. He had done extremely well keeping up. The pace they had been setting would have been brutal to most people. Add on to the fact that the gorgeous women across from them were wearing sexy swimsuits and you had another layer of difficulty that most men would be unable to fully overcome.

"I think we should call it here." He said patting Zuko on the back lightly.

"What?! No we've almost beaten you!" Tsuru pouted cutely.

"That's what you said six points ago." Nyuuki said raising her arms and stretching after which she walked around the volleyball net and grabbed Naruto by his arm.

"Come get a drink with me Jiraiya-sama." she then leaned up close to his ear pressing her body flush against his. "Watching you play has made me incredibly thirsty."

Now Naruto had lived quite a while and had taken on many identities to blend in with the various situations he found himself in. Due to him initially not being very good at putting on different personas Naruto had to convince himself to convince others that he really was that person. It was why a lot of his personas were from people he once knew. He had gotten better at differentiating between the different personas he would take on and himself since he had started but it was a hard habit to break. There was also something liberating in taking on someone's traits and immersing himself in that character.

And so once _**Jiraiya**_ saw Nyuuki sensually walk up to him with her banging bod in her small white string bikini, felt her press up against him and whisper seductively in his ear he decided that if they were this determined to try to get him uncomfortable it was about time to start using some old skills he hadn't needed to bother with in a long time.

Grabbing Nyuuki with the arm she had wrapped herself around he spun her from his side around to in front of him. He placed his left hand on her wide child baring hips while his right hand cupped her face as he looked deep into her wide golden eyes with foxy grin. He caressed her hip and lightly stroked her cheek all the while letting his pure chakra envelop them setting Nyuuki's senses on fire.

The results were immediate. A massive blush appeared on Nyuuki's face, her hands that were resting on his chest curled, her pupils dilated and her nipples hardened through her top that he felt from her body being tightly pressed against his own. She began to pant cutely and her body quivered lightly.

Naruto silently celebrated that his skills seemed to be up to par before he leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Nyuuki's lips.

Her knees buckled and nearly gave out but he held her steady. He nibbled on her bottom lip lightly coxing her to open her mouth. Moaning she did almost immediately but Naruto pulled back still biting her lip for a second before releasing it.

Naruto smiled down at the flushed, quivering and aghast Nyuuki before finally responding to her.

"Of course my love." He said lovingly and sincerely. "Anything for you."

"No fair!" their moment was disturbed in the form of Tsuru's indignant cry.

Naruto glanced over at her with her balled fists and heavy blush contrasting nicely to her pale skin.

"I want one too!"

"We're fighting remember?" Naruto chuckled as Nyuuki looked down and composed herself. However she didn't try to break away from their embrace.

"Fuck that!"

Tsuru ducked under the net (doing wonders for her breasts) quickly making her way over to Naruto.

Naruto appreciated Tsuru's swimsuit as she closed the distance between them. It was black with a bikini bottom that had metal rings on either side holding the two pieces together that rested nicely on her hips. The top wrapped around her slender neck and crisscrossed the top of her chest connecting again bellow her generous globes with a hole in the centre exposing her vast cleavage. A final strap came from the bottom of the top wrapping around her back and holding the piece together.

Of course the only reason it was an extremely sexy piece was because Tsuru was currently filling it with her killer body.

As she reached him she brought her arms up and beckoned him cutely.

Naruto looked down at Nyuuki as she finally withdrew herself from his embrace and looked up at him much more collected.

"I'm going to get my heels. I'll meet you by the bar." She said as she turned to leave.

Naruto nodded and turned to face Tsuru who was still looking at him expectantly.

"Do you surrender?" Naruto asked playfully.

"Yes." Tsuru said seriously.

Naruto sighed exaggeratedly before stepping into her arms. She wrapped them around his neck pressing her body up against him, closed her eyes and puckered up. He grinned evilly before planting a quick kiss on her forehead and then dancing out of her hold. Tsuru's eyes shot open and her shock quickly turned to rage.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT! GET BACK HERE!" And the chase was on.

Zuko watched from his place on the ground as he leaned against the volleyball net's pole drinking a cup of water. He honestly didn't quite know what to think about the whole spectacle going on in front of him and everybody else. He was disturbed however that he had felt incredibly strange for a brief moment when Jiraiya had kissed the dark skinned woman. Ever since Jiraiya and his crew had ended up on his ship lots of strange things had been happening if he was being honest.

"She's been trying to get him to sleep with her for a long time now." Zuko heard a soft and melodious voice come from above his left shoulder.

Looking up he saw the blonde woman who was always close to Jiraiya. Now that she wasn't wearing her usual conservative clothing he saw that she was very fit. She wore a light blue bikini with a strapless top and a bottom that had a bow on her right hip. Her hair was done up in a topknot with some strands having come loose and hanging in front of her face.

Zuko didn't have much interest in the opposite sex these days. It was a distraction from his mission more than anything else at this point. However he couldn't help but be awed by how stunning the women in Jiraiyas employ were, especially the four that were constantly around him. There was just an otherworldly beauty enveloping them that was difficult to describe.

The woman continued, "She used to hate his guts but he won her over just like he does with everyone. Once she realized that she wanted him she's been taking every available opportunity to try to get him in the sack."

Zuko blinked. "I thought they already had. I thought…..."

"That we all had?" the blonde smiled shaking her head. "No we haven't. Despite how he acts he is actually very restrained. That was the most intimate with Nyuuki I've ever seen him be."

She turned her gaze over to the chase and a soft look appeared on her face.

Zuko stood up and turned to face her with a serious expression. "Then why do you guys try to be so close to him if he keeps you at such a distance?"

The blonde's sky blue eyes bore into his for a long moment before they closed and Zuko witnessed one of the most brilliant smiles he had ever seen.

"Because we love him."

She left him then, headed in the direction of the commotion presumably to get Tsuru to calm down and Zuko was left to ponder everything he had learned.

* * *

Naruto sipped on his drink as he stole a sidelong glance at Nyuuki. She was being quiet, hadn't said a word since he sat down. It was getting a bit unbearable. He signalled everyone at the bar and they took themselves and Zuko's crew away from the couple.

Once they were alone Naruto finally spoke up, "Look, Nyuuki, I'm sor-"

"Did you mean it?" she interrupted him.

Naruto looked at her questioningly.

Nyuuki turned on her stool placing her legs over his own and leaned forward resting her elbow on the counter propping her chin up with her hand.

"Anything?" she reminded with a coy smile.

Naruto thought his blush might be reaching up to his hairline.

"Gods you girls are going to be the death of me." He mumbled out. "Aren't you and Kur- I mean Kumiko supposed to be the rational ones?"

Nyuuki shrugged, "We are but not when it comes to you. You know that."

"Yeah….I know." Naruto confirmed quietly.

Nyuuki regarded him for a long moment before speaking again. "Is it because we weren't originally human before? Or is it because you don't want to get involved that deep again?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. Still couldn't seem to break that habit.

"No to the first, I know you girls are more like me than anyone else. I suppose some part of it is in the second?" he said sounding unsure but continued on. "I've had time to get over them and I've been with women since but with you girls it would be different."

He looked into her eyes then and took her free hand in his own rubbing it softly.

"You girls will continue on with me. What if we have a falling out? And we already are very close. You guys are my family. We are the closest anyone could be without being, you know, 'that'." He redirected his gaze to her hand.

"Why ruin a good thing? What if it's awkward? And that's not even going into the whole jealousy side of it. I mean can you imagine Tsuru sharing anything? I don't want to cause problems between you girls. And what about the-"

Nyuuki grabbed him by his chin with her other arm and forced him to look at her, her eyes fierce.

"What is this bullshit? Some stupid little fears have been making you push us away? Naruto, there is no one else we would rather be with and we know you." Her harsh gaze softened. "We know that you have had a hole inside you since then and we want to help you fill it."

Naruto's eyes were wide as Nyuuki stood and straddled his lap.

"Let me love you." She said slowly leaning in to place a soft kiss on his lips.

This time it was Naruto who was on the defensive as Nyuuki encouraged him to open his mouth. He did and she pressed the advantage. He felt her wrap her left arm around his head and her hand delve into his locks while her right hand rested on his chest. They kissed for a little while, not breaking for a moment. Naruto felt her dainty tongue against his own, her warmth, her body pressing into him and decided that he wanted more.

He placed one hand on the small of her back pushing her closer to him his other coming up to the back of her neck massaging it gently.

Nyuuki moaned quietly and began to grind her hips on his own.

Naruto felt himself become harder and pulled back panting heavily resting his forehead on hers. Nyuuki was out of breath herself but was visibly disappointed that they hadn't continued further.

"God damn it woman." Naruto managed to get out between breaths. "You want to put on even more of a show?"

"I don't give a fuck about them right now. I'd rather fuck you."

Naruto chuckled lightly, "I can see that but I don't think that's the best idea right now. You've given me a lot to think about. We can revisit this soon."

Nyuuki leaned forward and pecked him on the lips once more.

"How soon?" she asked with eager eyes.

"You are insatiable!"

* * *

It had been a couple of weeks since the Earth Kingdom had made contact with the massive fox spirit Kurama (They had learned that it identified itself as one) and began to present various offerings to gain favour.

Kurama's male form munched on a juicy fruit that he didn't know the name of and relaxed on a large cushion next to his massive spirit form.

It didn't matter how many gifts they gave him. He wouldn't do anything without Naruto's command. But that didn't stop him from enjoying himself. It would have gotten pretty boring if all he was doing was sleeping the days away. He had done more than enough of that when he was sealed.

At noon he saw the usual caravan pulling out of the earth kingdom's encampment and heading in his direction. Apparently the earth kingdom had been approaching his other family members as well with varying degrees of success while the Fire Nation side had been very didn't matter if they did anything. Whatever Naruto's plan was Kurama would be sure to make it succeed.

As the group came closer Kurama noticed some differences in this one from the regular caravans. There were more guards, the food smelt better and they were bringing furniture. There was also a live bear. They ate bear here? Huh.

As the caravan arrived a heavily decorated carriage pulled up near him. Two manservants jumped down from the back with one grabbing a small portable staircase and the other heading for the door to the carriage. The guards who were behind the stagecoach quickly came to stand on either side of the door separating him from whoever was inside. The servant with the staircase put below the door and the other one put his hand on the handle before announcing loudly.

"PRESENTING HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, THE FIFTY SECOND KING OF THE EARTH KINGDOM, KING KUEI!" the young man bellowed out before opening the door and allowing the people inside to step out.

'Young.' Kurama thought as he assessed the king with his senses. 'Spoon fed but with some promise…..maybe.'

Two others stepped out behind the king, a general with an impressive beard and a young woman wearing a military uniform with an interesting haircut wielding a war hammer. Both they and the soldiers present were on edge. The general didn't outwardly show it however, while everyone else couldn't seem to help it.

The young king didn't seem to notice the tension however and made a beeline straight for him.

"Greetings O great spirit." the king began with exaggerated movements and signs. "I have come here to speak with you to learn of you and your kind."

Kurama chuckled. His rumbling tone caused the soldiers to tense up even more.

"Hello to you as well your highness." Kurama said as seriously as he could. Naruto would be mad if he messed up on negotiating with the Earth Kingdoms king.

"HEY PO!" Kurama called out as he rose from his pillow. Po was one of the few cooks he liked enough to learn the name of. He liked his meat dishes. "Get over here!"

The portly man looked startled before making his way over. He stopped as he reached the outer perimeter of the collected group and faced him and the king with his head bowed.

"This is your big chance Po." Kurama smirked "You got to impress the king if you want your dream to open a shop in Ba Sing Se to happen."

Po didn't quiet seem to know what to do so he simply bowed deep and backed away slowly.

While the rest of the King's entourage seemed to take offence to Kurama's flippant behaviour in front of their ruler, Kuei seemed fascinated more than anything. He had produced a note book from seemingly no-where and was taking some notes.

"So Kuei," The soldiers bristled once again with Kurama's familiarity with the monarch. 'Damn it, I'm not great at this Naruto.' Kurama thought gruffly before continuing. "You want to know about me do you?"

Kuei looked up from his notebook and seemed to remember that he was in public before placing his notebook away and finding a seat on another cushion near Kurama.

"Ah, yes I do. Tell me, do you spirits poop?"

* * *

Naruto watched as a snowflake slowly descended onto his outstretched palm. It could get pretty damn cold on this planet at the poles it seemed.

He turned to the horizon and expanded his senses across the icy tundra as far as he could.

'There.' He thought.

"I found it." He told his companions pointing further south. "We should be able to get there from the one at this pole from what the book said."

Akashi came up to his shoulder as they ran to their destination.

"Naruto-sama, I really feel that we should have brought a few more members or at least one of the honourable tailed beasts." Akashi spoke over the loud winds of the South Pole.

Naruto laughed loudly. "Would you believe me if I told you that at one point everyone hated the tailed beasts and considered them demons?" he asked rhetorically. "Nah, got to give them a break every once in a while. Besides," he turned to look at the red haired man with a pout. "you really think I can't do this myself?"

"Of course not Naruto-sama." Akashi responded in his dispassionate way. "It's just that you said that this is probably the most powerful being on this entire planet."

"I know!" Naruto grinned widely. "It's going to be fun."

A couple seconds later they arrived at their destination. The forest of trees was certainly odd but Naruto knew of its connection to the other side and thus wasn't very puzzled. Before they entered the forest however Naruto felt Kurama reaching out to him from one of the battlefields and opened the connection.

'What's wrong Kurama?'

'The earth king's here.'

Naruto raised an eyebrow. 'Really? Huh. That's interesting. How long can you keep him busy? I kind of need to be focused here for a bit.'

'We're starting entrées so I'd say a couple hours if I can drag it out.'

'Entrees? Never mind, do that and I'll be there as soon as I can.'

'Do I need to be worried?'

'No, no I'm fine.'

'Naruto-'

'Ok, got to go bye.'

Naruto broke the connection, signaled the four with him and they entered the forest.

It was very peaceful. His group didn't seem to think so, probably because of the spirits filtering around them. The four had formed a diamond shape around him causing Naruto to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"You know they can feel your negative energy right? That's what's going to make them attack us more than anything." Naruto told the four super soldiers. "Relax, let your mind clear, focus on the nature and energy around you." He directed them.

Akashi and his team exchanged glances before Akashi did as instructed with the rest following his example. Sure enough, the spirits left them alone for the most part. Some fluttered over to Naruto and danced around him enjoying the positive energy he projected.

After a relaxing walk to the centre of the woods they reached their destination and the spirits that had tagged along with them took off into various directions.

Naruto closed his eyes and placed his hands on the spirit portal in front of him allowing his own energy to leak out and begin to gently interact with the storm of spiritual power before of him.

After several minutes of feeling out and coxing the portal to bend to his will Naruto opened his eyes with a wide grin.

"We're in." he declared.

He walked forward and let the portal do its work coming out the other side to their intended destination.

It was a truly breath taking sight. Much of this planet had a beauty that he had rarely seen anywhere else. Every planet had its own beauty and charm but the energy here just really pleased him (Perhaps due to its similarities to his own.) And that put it a step above the rest. It just reaffirmed his desire to protect such a place.

Feeling his companions come through the portal behind him Naruto began to make his way to the massive tree of time that sat in between the two spirit portals.

As they approached the tree the malevolent energy of Vaatu began to pour over them.

'I guess it was a good idea to check on him.' Naruto reflected silently. The prison was pretty weak by this point. It had been a long time. You would think that a tree of time wouldn't be affected by something like that but he supposed that all the negative emotions and actions built up over that long was just too much for the tree to contain. He knew how cruel life could be.

Vaatu seemed surprised to see them. It made sense, after all this time who wouldn't be.

"Hey big guy, we came to see how things were going on this side!" Naruto waved to the personification of evil on this world while his four companions began to spread out heading in different directions.

"What nonsense is this?" Vaatu's voice boomed forth. "How is this possible? Only Raava could open the spirit portals and I do not feel her inside you."

"That's true." Naruto said as he jumped up onto the ledge in front of Vaatus prison and sitting down on it. "From this world, only Raava could do it." He grinned up at the being before him.

Vaatu was quiet for a moment before responding. "You say some interesting things, puny mortal. Tell you what. If you release me from this prison early I promise not to destroy all those you love."

"I don't know. It sounds like you're just going to use me and then toss me aside like garbage." Naruto said continuing to grin.

Vaatu brought his head down to the little human in front of him before snorting and pulling back. "Then what are you here for?"

"To let you out."

If Vaatu was capable of facial expressions he knew he would have what the humans called an incredulous one.

Before Vaatu could speak however Naruto continued.

"Then put you in another prison."

'Annoying.' Vaatu thought trying to contain his anger. 'What an annoying pest.'

"But first I'm going to bully you a bit."

" **YOU LITTLE WORM!"** Vaatu exploded. **"I WILL GRIND YOUR BONES TO DUST! I WILL BLAST YOU INTO OBLIVION! I WILL-"**

Naruto let Vaatu bellow and rage against his prison.

'Ah, what déjà vu is this?' he thought.

After a couple minutes Naruto finally stood up and placed a hand on Vaatu's prison halting the spirit's tirade.

"Let's get started shall we?"

* * *

Akashi listened to his three team mates chatter as they got into position at the edges of the large crater.

"I'm just saying he feels really powerful. It would be better to be safer now than sorry later."

"And I think we're fine! This is THE Naruto we're talking about!"

"You're both being idiots right now! Just focus on the job!"

"But how true are the legends? Don't you ever wonder that maybe it's all fiction."

"You've been hanging out with the honorable tailed beasts haven't you?!"

"Both of you shut up!"

An explosion of energy and dust happened at the massive tree prompting Akashi to put his game face on (which was exactly the same as it always was) and pull out his various combat scrolls.

"Eyes up people." He called out over coms. "We're about to see a legend get to work."

* * *

 **It's been awhile. The primary reasons for not updating were real life, motivation and creative juices not flowing but I wanted to keep some kind of consistency going so here is the next bit. Submissions are still a go, info on that at the end of chapter two. I wanted to address some questions that I haven't answered in the story yet. I don't like spoiling stuff so I try not to but it's taking a while to do this so if it doesn't spoil anything major I thought why not.**

 **NarutoXAzula/women of avatar: I consider telling what the pairings are right of the bat as a spoiler so that's why I haven't done so. Having said that I feel like I should touch on something. Naruto is pretty old in this story and him getting intimate with teenagers is not very likely. He's had kids of his own. I do plan on trying to get through to the Korra timeline however so maybe once they are older? I could start a relationship with say, Ty lee, now but it will only be physically intimate later. Last thing, the NarutoXAzula pairing has been done a lot but I feel like I could put a spin on it if I decide to go through with it. Feel free to share your thoughts.**

 **Where are Aang and the Gang? : They are coming soon! I'm just taking longer than I thought to make it there. Aang hasn't been woken up yet. This is just before then.**

 **Is this way in the future for Naruto? : An interesting question. I thought it was obvious but I guess not? Yes it is.**

 **My OC's: Do you like them? I found that I did like one or two so I want to know if you wouldn't mind seeing them more. I didn't initially want any OC's in my story but I found uses for them. Akashi, Mariko and Orga are my intermediaries for the Spec ops, Naruto's people and the military so I have to keep them around.**

 **Special thanks to TSAImpregnable and RevampedAtol for their consistent support. frozem1, I don't always get what you're saying and I have no idea how you can read my story but I love your enthusiasm! Thank you to everyone else for their kind words. They drive me. Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames will be ignored. Till next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

* * *

The barrier shattered from a ripple of Naruto's energy and he quickly shot backwards into the air away from Vaatu's whipping arm. Instantly clearing the dust cloud created from the strike in his leap, Naruto laughed happily as he pulled on more chakra than he had in a while to prepare for Vaatu's follow up attacks.

Vaatu soon followed him out of the dust cloud and whipped is arms again at the suspended blonde. Grinning widely Naruto encased himself in a wind barrier while also coming to a dead stop. Once the arms got a little closer Naruto leaned forward and propelled himself forward, cutting through the air like a knife.

Once the closer arm hit his wind barrier Vaatu watched in shock as the blonde slipped around his arm with ease. The barrier and Naruto's control of the wind had the same effect as one would have trying to slap a feather out of the air but it just dancing out of harm's way. Naruto let the barrier do its job, slipping around Vaatus arm and lightly sticking to the other side of it with his chakra. With the speed he generated from a sprint, with his wind manipulation assisting, he travelled down Vaatu's arm almost instantly using it to hide his approach.

Naruto's mastery over his most familiar element was second nature at this point. So much so that he was able to go through a couple hand signs for his next move before he arrived.

As the blond seemingly vanished from the tip of Vaatu's arm the malevolent spirit had no time to react as he heard a voice come from right under his eye.

"UZUMAKI SPEACIAL: DRAGON RAMPAGE!" Naruto yelled as he punched Vaatu's chest.

The energy encased in the strike exploded outward and five elemental dragons sprung into existence slamming into Vaatu. They propelled him back before tearing though him and continuing on quite a ways before dispersing. Vaatu fell on his back causing the ground to shake.

Naruto stood on a platform of air and calmly watched as the giant hole in Vaatu began to close rapidly.

'It's about what I thought.' He contemplated as a scroll dropped out of his sleeve into his waiting palm. 'I'm going to have to hit him a lot.'

As the hole finished closing up Vaatu rose, his eye trained squarely on Naruto.

"You certainly are more than you seem but it matters not." Vaatu boomed out as his eye began to glow brighter. "You cannot defeat me. I have lived ten thousand of your pitiful lifetimes! I am the conduit of the world's evil! To hate me is to give me breath! To fight me is to give me strength! Now prep-"

"Giant Rasengan!"

Vaatu felt a massive amount of energy suddenly appear behind him and before he could react it slammed into his back, driving him into the ground once again.

"You got to pay more attention!" Naruto called out to the flattened Vaatu who had gained another gaping hole in his body. "You're making evil look bad! Ha ha! Get it? Evil? Bad? No? I guess it wasn't really that good."

Vaatu looked up in shock at the blonde above him.

'He's still were he was before! So are the four he brought with him! Then who-'

Vaatu felt something land on top of him as he continued to look up at the blonde and he quickly turned to see the offender. Standing on his back was the exact same blonde as the one above him, waving at him as a ball of energy began to grow in blondes free hand. The duplicate on his back then reared the ball back for another blow. Vaatu roared and moved with all the speed he could muster and smacked the blonde off of him with so much force it created a small crater.

As Vaatu whipped around to face the original blonde, intent on blasting the prick out of existence, he froze.

"Sage Art: Massive Rasengan Barrage."

"GRAGGHHHH!"

* * *

Akashi felt his left eye twitch a little as Vaatu's screams rumbled across the landscape. The poor guy had no idea who he was dealing with.

"See? I told you. Not a problem."

"Hey, I had no idea how strong this 'being of evil' was okay?"

"I'm going to make a human centipede out of you both if you don't shut your mouths!"

Akashi decided that it was time to intervene in his teams little spat. Otherwise they would continue to be at each other's throats and that's when mistakes were made.

"Enough." Akashi's voice cut through the chatter like a kunai. "It's time to put up the barriers."

Their job was pretty simple. Block off Vaatu's escape by putting up barrier's around the two spirit portals and monitor the situation from afar. Naruto-sama had been adamant that they wouldn't need to enter into the fight but had conceited that having them block off the portals was a good idea. It was the only reason that he had even allowed them to tag along.

* * *

Naruto unrolled the scroll at a leisurely pace from his position at the top of the tree of time's branches while his clones continued to smash into Vaatu with every version of the Rasengan he had come up with over the years. Suffice it to say there were a lot so that would keep him busy for some time. It sure was nice to get back to the basics every once in a while.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as Vaatu unleashed a massive torrent of energy from his eye that consumed a good portion of the small horde he had conjured up. He defiantly was putting up a good fight.

Placing his hand on the scroll he channelled some chakra into it and let it wash over him at the same time. The object inside immediately encased him.

Naruto stood and looked down at the suit that he now wore. It was similar to the First Division's suits with a few differences. For starters the metal plates were orange, obviously. The helmet was a simple orange head covering with a black visor slit for the eyes. The body glove was still black but there were yellow (A similar shade to his and Kurama's bijuu form) electrical lines webbed throughout the piece that lit up and pulsed every so often. Like a heartbeat. It was very streamline and helped outline Naruto's superhuman physique. He kept his pouches in the same spots as before but he now had a small tanto slipped in behind the two pouches on his lower back. Additionally, there was now dual pistol hand cannons now strapped to both his thighs.

Naruto nodded a little to himself and rolled the scroll out a bit more to get to his next item. After the small puff of smoke dissipated Naruto reached down and picked up a pitch black ball about the size of a fist that seemed to suck in and warp the light around it.

Slipping the ball into a pouch Naruto stood and walked to the very tip of the tree of times braches. Looking down he signalled the rest of his remaining clones. Then he slowly tipped forward and let gravity do its work. His clones quickly oriented themselves and drove Vaatu underneath his descent after which they dispersed sending their remaining energy back to him. Naruto wound his right arm back as he gathered chakra into his fist as Vaatu looked around in bewilderment.

"HEADS UP!" Naruto sounded out gleefully.

Vaatu couldn't stop his reflex to look up and was rewarded with a punch, with enough force behind it to shatter a small mountain range, that split him apart, driving him once again back to earth.

Bouncing off the ground Vaatu felt an anger so strong well up inside of himself that he hadn't felt in an age.

No. This was MUCH worse.

The insect seemed to be toying with him.

As soon as he was whole again Vaatu shot towards one of the spirit portals at his top speed. Let's see if the worm would continue fighting once he started blasting the humans off the face of the earth.

He was almost there. He-

Vaatu smacked into an energy barrier with his body condensing in on itself from the force of the impact.

"Wow. You really went for it didn't you?" He heard the blonde behind him. "Villains all seem to tick the same boxes huh."

Vaatu righted himself and drew up against the hovering blonde trying to portray an imposing figure.

"You…You little…"

"Yes, yes we've done that." Naruto said waving his hands dismissively. "Tell you what. I feel like I'm not going to get much more from you so what I'm going to do is stay stationary right here."

Naruto rose up to Vaatu's eye level and got into a stance, beckoning him with his hands cheerily. "Do your best!"

Vaatu's eye pulsed bright once again before he roared and gave the fool what he wanted.

Naruto grinned behind his helmet as he charged his own attack.

The attack was pretty simple. It was primarily a combination of a Rasengan and the lightning technique Laser Circus.

Simple right?

Well except for the fact that the Rasengan was the size of a tailed beast bomb, the Laser Circus was pure chakra rather than lightning and each beam was larger than the tree of times trunk. He hadn't named this one yet but he REALLY liked it.

The Rasengan drilled through Vaatu's beam like it was nothing as his own beams arched around and slammed into Vaatu from almost every angle. Then the Rasengan hit and rather than drill straight through it began to implode. It sucked Vaatu in with it getting smaller and smaller before exploding back out in a spectacular fashion blinding Akashi and his team. The explosion would have reached all the way across to each of them but Naruto was containing it with a barrier he had set up after firing the attack. The explosion continued for several seconds before dispersing and Naruto released his barrier.

Lightly taping down on the ground Naruto looked at the suit before nodding with content. The suit helped with a lot of things but it primarily assisted with his control. It was why he was able to pull off that extremely complex stunt at the end there.

Pulling out his right hand cannon Naruto made his way over to where he felt Vaatu's presence. When Naruto arrived he was happy to see that Vaatu was now a much more manageable size, the size of a pinkie to be exact.

As soon as Vaatu spotted him he turned and tried to get away from him.

Naruto in turn raised his gun and shot him out of the sky.

As Narute made his way over at a nice leisurely pace Vaatu struggled to turnover and look at the blonde above him.

Naruto sighed and removed his helmet. The helmet let off a hiss of air as he did because the suit was pressurized for space.

"Well that wasn't too bad was it?" Naruto smiled down at Vaatu with his signature grin. "I had some fun. Sorry for going all out there at the end. I got a bit carried away. You're pretty strong."

"Bullshit." Vaatu bit out vehemently. "You were still holding back."

"Well, yeah, I didn't want to kill you." Naruto said as he kneelt next to Vaatu.

"You couldn't. I would come back stronger than ever. I always do."

Naruto hummed for a long moment. "Do you know how many 'Gods' I've killed? Eighteen. They all said I couldn't and I believed them so I went all out."

Vaatu was stunned. This…this man in front of him wasn't lying. He would have felt it if he was.

Naruto reached around behind himself and pulled out the black stone and placed it between them.

"Do you know how many I beat? Ten thousand three hundred and twenty five." He said as he pulled out a scroll from his pouch and rolled it out.

He picked up Vaatu almost tenderly before placing him and the stone next to each other on the scroll.

"While I don't personally know what it's like to be sealed away…wait there was that one time….and that one…...hmm…." Naruto cupped his chin and mumbled under his breath for a moment thinking deeply before blinking rapidly and coming back to the present. "While I don't know what it's like to be sealed away for a LONG period of time I do have some close friends who do. I know it sucks. So if you're good you might have a parole hearing in a several years. The rest you can learn from everybody there."

"What the hell do you-!?"

With a puff of smoke and energy Vaatu disappeared into the stone.

Naruto took the stone and sent it away with the Flying Thunder God. As he packed up Akashi and his team landed behind him.

"Oh, good timing guys let's-" Naruto looked down at the kneelt forms of the first division a little puzzled.

"Uzumaki-sama there are no words to describe our joy of seeing you in action."

"A magnificent display."

"I will follow you to the ends of the universe!"

Lastly Akashi raised his head and said, "Good work Naruto-sama."

Naruto leaned back and let out a boisterous laugh.

* * *

Kurama munched on a large leg of meat as Kuei watched him like a hawk and nibbled on his own meal.

"So this Long Feng, you imprisoned him?" Kurama asked between bites.

Kuei nodded woefully. "I didn't want to. The man has served me faithfully for years but the evidence was overwhelming after I found out about the war. I suppose that is something else I should thank you for."

Kurama shrugged, "Like I told you. Wasn't me. You got to thank the squirt when he-"

Bonk!

"Oh? I'm a squirt huh?" Naruto said with gritted teeth as everyone else freaked out at the sudden arrival of the blonde. "What does that make you Kurama?"

They freaked out even more when the very MALE spirit in front of the transformed into a gorgeous woman who then draped herself around Narutos neck.

"It makes me that crazy bitch that's the best sex in the universe." She purred seductively.

Naruto's ticked off expression quickly turned predatory and Kumiko was left a little stunned when rather than shy away flushing hotly Naruto grabbed her tight ass with one hand, reached down with his other grabbing her thigh and lifted her up to press against him with an incredibly pleasurable roll of his hips against her sex.

"Didn't you get the memo Kumiko? I'm on the hunt as well now." Naruto whispered softly as Kumiko shivered and blushed lightly against him. "You better be careful now or I might just take you up on your offer."

Naruto let her go and Kumiko almost fell over before quickly composing herself. Naruto then took the seat at the head of the table and smiled at Kuei.

"Greetings your highness, I hope you have learned a lot since finding out about us." Naruto greeted with a kind foxy smile that hid his eyes.

Kuei seemed to pick up on what he was implying.

"It was you." Kuei mumbled in awe. "You orchestrated everything that led to me finding out about all this."

Naruto's eyes opened slightly as Kumiko finally decided what she wanted to do and situated herself on his lap.

"To some degree." Naruto responded as he alternated between feeding himself and Kumiko. "I watched you for a little while and determined that you were someone that deserved to know what was going on with your kingdom. So I just presented a realistic situation in which you would overhear some pertinent information. The rest was all you and your men."

Kuei was quiet for a while and Naruto took this time to scan the rest of the group present at the table. He was a little surprised to see a familiar face.

"Hey haven't you and I met before at some point?" Naruto asked the woman with the interesting hairstyle sitting near the back with a flabbergasted look on her face.

His question seemed to pull her out of her shocked state and she wildly looked around at the sudden attention on her from everyone at the table.

"Yes." She finally responded. "You defeated me in a tournament."

"Oh yeah that's right!" Naruto clapped gleefully. "You were the best one there."

"Clearly not good enough given that you can't even remember it." The woman bit out through gritted teeth.

"Don't take too much of an offence darling." Kumiko's sultry voice cut through the air comfortingly. "This guys an idiot. It's actually is pretty amazing that he remembered you at all. You must have left a bit of an impression on this knucklehead."

Naruto surprised everyone when rather than being offended at the women's comments he laughed loudly and agreed with her.

"That's what she's here for." Naruto said as he nuzzled Kumiko's neck. "She helps in the best of ways."

Other than Kuei, who was still thinking to himself, the rest of the table became a tad more uncomfortable at the couples affection towards each other.

"So what is it that you want spirit?" Kuei's question cut through the tension at the table. "You wouldn't have let me know what was going on if you didn't want something in return."

Naruto gave his attention to the young king.

"Well now, let's see….."

* * *

It had been a couple of months since Naruto and his team had joined Zuko and his crew on their trip down the coast. During that time the ship would dock every so often and Naruto and his team would travel across the nearby landscape, performing as they went.

They were now arriving at the closest Fire Nation port to the fabled Kyoshi Island which Naruto, as Jiraiya, had said he wanted to visit but Zuko and his crew could not drop them off as Kyoshi Island was neutral in the war. So while Zuko and his crew scouted out the South Pole, Jiraiya and his team would head to Kyoshi Island.

Naruto, Iroh and Zuko stood on the dock as they bid their farewells.

"Goodbye Jiraiya. I will miss our late night conversations." Iroh said as he and Jiraiya shook hands.

"I will as well General Iroh." Naruto agreed before turning to Zuko. "See you later kid and best of luck!"

Zuko nodded crisply before turning to his uncle.

"We should head off." Half way up the ramp Zuko suddenly stopped and turned back to look at Jiraiya and his happy smile. "I thank you and your crew Jiraiya. You have taught me many things."

"Mmm, no problem Zuko, it was fun."

With that final exchange Zuko's ship left.

Jiraiya stood on the dock for a little while before Akashi came up behind him and spoke.

"We are ready Naruto-sama."

"Very good." Naruto nodded contentedly before turning and addressing his assembled team. "Well now, off to Kyoshi Island!"

* * *

Azula rode into the Fire Nation camp with confidence. The men and women of the camp all lined up on the side of the path leading to the commander's tent.

As they arrived at the tent an older man decorated with a general's attire and a small group of sub commanders came out of the tent to greet her and her own entourage.

"Princess Azula," the older man began. "Welcome to-"

"Yes, yes," Azula interrupted promptly. "Do you know why I'm here, General? I'm here to get this war back on track."

She got off her mount swiftly, walking up to them with a purpose.

"Now then, I want to know everything." Azula commanded with a predatory grin.

* * *

 **Shorter update but an update nonetheless! *sigh* When I started I told myself that I would update consistently and with consistent chapter lengths. Boy was I wrong. I knew that it would be tough but I didn't know how much. No one has submitted characters so far so I'll stop mentioning it. It will be open from now on till I say otherwise. Any who thanks once again for your support. Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames will be ignored.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

* * *

Akui crouched low on a large tree branch as he and his team surveyed the large contingent of soldiers below them.

They had been deployed as soon as the information had come through of the Fire Nations military deployments, relayed to them from the scanners above on the Hibiki.

It had been a little while since there had been this much movement from the Fire Nation and Akashi and Orga had both agreed that each company of troops needed to be monitored by at least a team of three of the Special Ops.

Akui silently signalled his two teammates and they, as a unit, slipped through the shadows to get to the head of the group where the commander was. Perhaps they could pick up on some key information from potential conversation.

Akui felt a silent light tap on his shoulder and turned to the teammate (He didn't know the man personally. Only knew him as Sigma which was his call sign for this op.) that had grabbed his attention.

"Why aren't we just changing into random soldiers and mingling with them again?" the man asked through their coms. The coms were muted from the outside of their helmets so there was no risk of being heard by the soldiers below.

Akui raised an eyebrow and responded in kind.

"Did you not read the info dump that was released?" he asked.

The other man shrugged. "Didn't think it would matter from what I had read so far. These guys can't touch us right?"

"How did you get into the first division, exactly?" Akui asked a little incredulously. "Never mind, to answer your question there are some people on this planet that can detect us. There are very few in number that can do it and you have to be pretty close but we can't risk being caught in the middle of them and being revealed. We are to be on the lookout for such individuals and keep our distance as much as possible."

Sigma looked ready to respond when the third member of their squad, Delta, cut into the conversation.

"They're slowing down." She notified them in a calm voice.

The two men ceased their chatter and turned their attention once more to the battalion below.

'What are they doing?' Akui thought quizzically.

The soldiers were all gathering into groups. The groups then began to get into circles facing outward in two rows, with their supply carts down the centre.

'Something is wrong.' Akui frowned. 'It's like they're preparing for an ambush. But that would mea-'

A sudden shadow above them was all the warning they got.

"Scatter!" Akui shouted into his helmet as he himself shot off from his tree at his top speed.

Fast as he was with all his skill and upgrades he could not completely clear the explosion that went off behind him.

But he was a goddamn shinobi and part of the best of the best.

Summoning a bit more of his chakra, he converted it to lightning chakra and pumped it into his suit. To lightning users the Special Ops armour was particularly useful in these situations. By doing this, almost any lightning user could attain speed similar to that of the Raikages of old.

But for those truly skilled? It was like handing the best racers in the world the ultimate vehicle.

Akui disappeared to over a mile away in an instant. He then deactivated his ability turned on a dime and hurried back at a more manageable speed.

The illusion that Delta had cast over him had dissipated which meant something had happened to her. He quickly cast another over himself. It wasn't as good as hers but it would do the job.

"Sigma, Delta, status!" Akui nearly shouted into his com his mind racing a mile a minute adrenalin pumping though him. He hadn't meant to get that far away but he didn't know what the hell had happened. An explosive projectile had landed right on top off them that was clear. How had they known where they were? Where the hell had it come from?

Akui pulled up his H.U.D. and connected to Sigma's drone feed that the man had deployed at some point after the explosion just as the man in question responded.

"Delta is down but alive, my suits been fried and we're surrounded. The Initial blast took down our shields and this bitch just appeared out of nowhere and fried us with lightning. I just managed to get my drone up." Sigma responded with seemingly some effort.

The feed was a little choppy but Akui began to piece together the situation instantly. The artillery back at the main Fire Nation camp had turned and had blanket fired the area around the 'scouting' battalion. They had unfortunately had a projectile drop right on top of them and because it was an inanimate object had only picked up on it at the last minute. It was actually sort of good that he had distanced himself as far as he had otherwise another shot might have hit him.

The Fire Nation fire benders in the ambush group had managed to direct any stray shots back towards the forest. The supply crates also seemed to be caring even more soldiers, soldiers that had currently surrounded his team.

Sigma had summoned three stone golems who were encircling a downed Delta and were warding off the Fire Nation troops while Sigma himself was squaring off against the 'bitch' and a group of fire benders.

Sigma wasn't killing any of them yet but Akui could tell the man was seriously considering it. He also didn't have an illusion going which was not good. They had been exposed.

Their opponents seemed to be holding back as well. Perhaps they intended to catch them alive? That was an error on their part. It would allow him to get there in enough time.

Akui thought back briefly to what Naruto-sama had told them in one of their first military meetings.

' _Your lives take priority. If you are exposed that is fine. If you have to kill to survive that too is fine. You are the most important to me. Do whatever it is you need to do but always come back alive.'_

'Sir, yes sir!' Akui thought with determination as he cleared the tree line and bolted through the manmade clearing towards the army encircling his team. As he rapidly approached the backs of the enemy he signalled the Hibiki.

"Prep medical. We got a woman down." He declared calmly and clearly.

A lone Fire Nation pikeman turned as he ran up to the large group and he saw the fear in the man's eyes.

"Look out-" the man began to scream before Akui put on a little more speed, dashed up the pikeman's spear and smashed the man in the face with his foot sending him sprawling into the backs of his comrades and propelling Akui high into the air.

Once Akui was high enough he pulled three extendable rods from his supplies and tossed them in a triangle to the corners of the large group.

Sigma, having noticed his approach, disengaged from his fight and shot back to the unconscious Delta. The three damaged golems turned their backs to the Fire Nation soldiers and morphed around Sigma and Delta in a protective dome of earth.

Akui finished his hand signs as he fell back to the earth.

'Lightning technique: Field of blue flowers!'

The space inside the triangle began to light up a light blue colour as arches of lightning began to appear and crackle. Akui heard the men and women begin to shout in alarm but it was too late. Seemingly all at once lightning shot out of the ground shocking everything within the triangles centre and because the entire battalion had encircled his team that meant he had gotten the whole group.

He had missed the bitch though. She had used her fire to propel herself into the air and had gotten just out of reach.

Akui didn't care. He ran to the mound of earth and knocked on it.

As the earth began to receded Akui felt the woman from before approaching quickly. He turned to her as she paused and began to charge a lightning attack.

Akui spread his arms, one in the direction of his team and the other in the direction of the woman.

The woman's attack left her fingers and it was upon him like, well, lightning.

In return Akui called forth one of the most famous lightning techniques around.

'Lightning cutter.'

The women's bolt slammed into his technique and it, as it name implied, cut straight through her lightning.

Akui held the technique until he felt Sigma grasp his hand with one of his own, Delta safely secured against his side within the man's free arm.

Akui signalled the Hibiki and before the bitch's astonished eyes they disappeared without a trace.

* * *

Naruto felt his eye twitch a little as he struggled to move his arm. He would have to think of something if he didn't want to be smothered by the girls every time he went to sleep. Ever since he had begun to respond to their advances the women had pounced on every opportunity he gave to get as much affection as they could from him. They were also surprisingly very accommodating of each other. The never fought each other over him. He assumed that they had discussed some kind of deal amongst themselves.

As he continued to try to free his various body parts he heard a knock on the door to his room.

"Naruto-sama, there has been a situation." He heard Akashi's voice come through the door.

Naruto knew what that tone meant. Someone had gotten hurt.

* * *

Azula stood in silent shock in the middle of her groaning soldiers. Glancing over them she could see that most, if not all, were still alive. It seemed that even when pushed into a corner their…opponents were still not actively trying to kill them. It was interesting. Although based on what she had just witnessed it seemed that they weren't quite the cornered animals she had thought they were.

As Azula began to try to rally her soldiers from there subdued state there was a sound like the crack of thunder that tore across the valley and a shadow fell over her. Azula looked up and saw a flying metal…ship?

"Hello miss."

Azula spun with a torrent of flame to strike at the sudden voice but both of her hands were grabbed.

As she took in the appearance of the man before her there was something that stood out.

'Are those….whiskers?' she thought.

"You've been a naughty little girl haven't you? I think you need a time out."

And then she knew only darkness.

* * *

Orga watched as his men unloaded the Fire Nation captives from his ships. This was fortunately the only group they had to take captive. The other traps that had been set for the rest of the Spec Ops had been dealt with minimal difficulty or had been evaded completely.

This group though. This one had been very lucky. The team they had attacked had been caught by surprise. On top of that the leader who had come up with the ploy, a princess, was among that group and was a strong fighter. She had quickly directed her men to encircle the wounded one and had almost forced the operative defending to take drastic measures.

Orga had been close himself to sending down a whole ship load of men to secure the site but by the time they were ready to deploy the leader of the team had managed to get into contact with the two trapped operatives and use his suit to allow the Hibiki to evacuate them safely. It turned out however that prepping his teams for deployment had been a good idea because Naruto suddenly appeared on the ship and commanded that the entire Fire Nation unit that had attacked the team was to be taken prisoner.

Orga's men had deployed gleefully. They were starting to get a little stir crazy knowing that there were ops happening without them. He would have to talk with Naruto or Akashi and see if they couldn't get a little more involved in the future.

* * *

Naruto sat on a floating iceberg as he munched on a sandwich. It was sunny today at the South Pole and Naruto decided that he wanted to take a break to enjoy the majesty of the landscape surrounding him.

He had come back to the South Pole alone on a whim really. Well, half of him had. The other half was probably partying on Kyoshi Island. Ever since he had come here for the spirit portal there had been something about this place. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on. So he had returned to investigate but so far had turned up nothing.

After his meal he would check out that little village he sensed a while back and if he still found nothing he would return to the others and re-join with his other half.

Naruto stood and wiped his pants when there was a sudden explosion of power he felt in the distance. Turning to it Naruto raised an eyebrow at the slowly disappearing pillar of light.

'Huh, so that's what it was.' Naruto thought. 'Well, let's go and see shall we?'

Naruto followed the unique power signature for a little while before noticing several other signatures with it and from the direction they were going it looked like they were heading for the village. He decided to meet them there. Naruto cranked up his speed and headed towards the village.

Arriving about a mile outside the village Naruto stopped and contemplated on how he was going to make contact with the village without raising too much suspicion. Sure he could ghost around safely enough but where was the fun in that? He wanted to interact more with the people of this planet. They were pretty interesting.

A merchant would work. Who would he go as? Garra could be funny. Rock Lee would be hilarious.

'Nah I'll just go as myself.' Naruto thought as he summoned one of his carts he had bought a little while back that he had filled out for just such an occasion. Naruto then summoned a boat that could fit the cart, him and a couple more people.

'Who should I bring with me on this little venture of mine, some kind of bodyguard maybe? Oh, I know just the person.'

Naruto opened his mind and connected to his intended target. 'Hey Sun, do you want to have some fun?'

'Always Naruto but-' there was a puff of smoke as a figure arrived. "I'd rather you called me Chichi!"

Naruto sucked in a breath. He didn't know why he was so surprised really. He should even start looking forward to it.

Standing before him was defiantly not the hulking male form of Sun. No longer was she a staggering near seven feet tall wall of muscle, having lost a little more than half a foot of height and allot of mass in her muscles. That had gone to other areas. She still was incredibly fit, the most outwardly fittest of all the girls, but she now possessed definite feminine curves. Hour glass frame (They must have known that body type really got him going), soft skin, full lips and a strong but still feminine face. Her red hair was longer and wild still, falling down to just below her shoulder blades. Her eyes had changed from a light brown to vivid silver and her tan skin had become just a tad paler. Naruto had seen a version of this form before. The key difference being that the last version had been a lot manlier. Not that she had been unattractive before this recent change but it was just now she looked drop dead GOURGEOUS.

She wore a metal chest piece, a metal battle skirt that went down to her mid-thigh, metal greaves that came up to and covered her knees. Underneath that she wore a black skin tight suit made with a fabric Naruto knew to be stronger than most metals. The armour she wore was black as well. A set he had fashioned once from a dying star for her. It had been during a creating phase he had gone though. The armour would change its shape based on what the wearer decided and if one looked closely they would see swirls and ripples across the piece.

Her arms and the top of her chest were bare save for two wrist band gauntlets, made of the same metal, which covered the front half of her forearms. The centre of the chest piece had a red gem imbedded in the centre and finally she had a black choker with the same type of red gem hanging down from it.

Naruto finally released his breath and smiled up at Chichi.

"I know weather really doesn't affect us but to keep up appearances you should put on a cloak or something." Naruto told her as he gestured to her current apparel.

Chichi blinked as she looked down and shrugged.

"I just came from a beach on an island but you're right." She said as a black cloak appeared and settled around her.

Naruto nodded satisfied.

"Great, thanks, now let-" Naruto was cut off as Chichi suddenly grabbed him and mashed their lips together.

Naruto blinked in surprise but before he could respond Chichi let him go and leaned back with a pout.

"That wasn't as good as the girls said it would be." She mumbled disappointedly.

Naruto blinked rapidly once more before understanding and he let out a little chuckle.

"There is more to kissing than just touching lips Chichi." Naruto said as he pressed up against her and cupped her face in his hands. "Here, let me show you."

Naruto kissed her softly at first, releasing his energy and lust at a steady pace. Soon however they were battling with their tongues furiously. Chichi had taken a fistful of his hair in her hand while the other was grabbing his ass, kneading and caressing it. Naruto reached down and grabbed her thighs lifting her with ease not breaking their kiss for a second. Automatically her legs wrapped around his waist and Naruto carried her onto his boat into the tent that was set up at the back of the craft.

Eh, checking out the village could wait.

* * *

 **I think I might be keeping the chapters at this length from now on. Anything could happen but I feel good about it right now. This chapter was pretty fun to write. I got a character to play with and his whole bit just flowed out of my fingers.**

 **I'm going to be putting up a poll for lemons. I'm VERY hesitant about it but if enough people want it I might consider it, might be a good challenge for myself.**

 **Also I'm looking for a beta. Looking over some of my old chapters I noticed I didn't do them as well as I thought.**

 **Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames will be ignored. Till next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: This is strictly a work of fiction. I do not own Naruto or Avatar the last Airbender. At the time of this writing they are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and Nickelodeon respectively. I do own the concepts and plots I introduce into the story. This story is a product of my imagination, not for monetary gain, but for my own enjoyment. Enjoy.**

* * *

Naruto gazed up at the ceiling of the tent with Chichi snuggled up against his side as he idly stroked her bare shoulder with the arm he had wrapped around her.

Well, he'd done it. He'd passed the point of no return, downright demolished it. Was it the right thing to do? Chichi had certainly thought so.

Naruto turned his head and looked at Chichi's contently sleeping face.

Naruto smiled.

'You know what? Screw it.' Naruto thought as he brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face. 'I'm happy right now and if this can make them happy as well then I should let nothing hold me back anymore.'

* * *

Sokka was a simple guy. Not that he was mentally impaired, mind you. No, it was more along the lines of a man who had lived his life with simplicity at its core.

Today had not been simple. Oh, sure it had started out well enough. He and Katara had gone fishing, he had made fun of her magic water bending, and she had dumped water on his head. You know the usual.

But that had been the end of the usual. Today they had broken a boy and his giant bison out of a freaking iceberg. How does that even happen!?

It turned out the boy was an air bender and he and his bison had both, understandably, had a bit of a cold.

Egh, he shivered just thinking about.

On their trip back to the village the boy had fallen asleep so once they made it back Katara took him to a tent and left Sokka to deal with the giant bison. After trying and failing to decipher what exactly the giant behemoth might eat, the bison (whose name he had heard Aang say was Appa) wandered a little ways away and lay down with a huff. It had been pretty peaceful since then but it was later in the afternoon that it got even more complicated.

As Sokka finished fixing a fishing net one of the mothers in the village, Nilak, came running to find him.

"Sokka, Sokka come quick!" she called out to him, pulling him out of the mundane chore he had been invested it.

"What's wrong Nilak?" Sokka asked worriedly. "What's happened?"

Nilak paused briefly to catch her breath before standing straight and speaking in as calm a voice as she could.

"There are some people approaching the village." She said. "They got off a boat at the shore and were headed for the gate."

Sokka grabbed his club and boomerang, quickly heading for the gate.

He arrived to see two people, a man and…..a woman? Yes, that was a very tall woman. He didn't know women could grow to be that tall.

The man greeted him first from his seat atop a small cart that was full of stuff.

"Hello there young man, that's a nice boomerang you got there. I think you might be a little late though." the man spoke cheerily gesturing to Sokka's brandished weapons as he did. "The war has been put on hold from what I've heard."

"Who are you?" Sokka demanded quickly before what the man had said to him registered. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"Now, that's two questions already. You're a very quizzical lad aren't you?" the blonde man chuckled lightly before hopping down off his perch. "But I suppose since I am the stranger on your land I should oblige you."

Sokka jumped slightly when the man suddenly hopped into the air and clicked his heals together as the woman whipped out a musical instrument.

"I come from a land far away," the man began as he waved his arms in exaggerated and strange movements as the woman whipped out a tune. "Traveling is my passion and the world is my oyster. I am the magnanimous Naruto Uzumaki!"

He finished his speech with his arms outstretched and a whirl of his head.

Sokka could not help the slightly flabbergasted look on his face.

Today was defiantly turning into his strangest day, ever.

The man then turned to the woman and gestured for the instrument.

"Alright Chichi, now it's your turn." Naruto said as Chichi handed it to him happily.

"No, No! I don't need to see that ever again in my life! I just wanted your names!" Sokka yelled a little crazily.

The woman, Chichi, pouted while Naruto pated her on the shoulder.

"It's okay Chichi. We'll do it again some other time." Naruto said comfortingly.

Naruto then turned to Sokka and continued as if nothing had just happened.

"To answer your second question, all I know is that something happened during the war that caused everyone to stop." Naruto finished with a shrug.

"Sokka!" Sokka heard Katara call out to him. He turned to see her and the rest of the village quickly congregating behind him.

Naruto turned and addressed the assembled village with arms outstretched and a wide smile.

"Greetings ladies and gentlemen, I and my companion have travelled far to visit your picturesque land and hopefully trade with you for some items that can only be attained here." Naruto said.

"Why would you want to come here? We haven't had any visitor's in years." Katara asked as she stood at the front of the assembly between the village and their peculiar visitors.

"I'll tell you why Katara." Sokka spoke up as he gripped his weapons a little tighter. "It's because they are fire nation spies."

Naruto tilted his head quizzically.

"Right, we are fire nation spy's come to spy on your dangerous fishing nets and defeat your many dangerous warriors." Naruto said with his hands on his hips and a shake of his head as his face became sterner. "It's good to be paranoid young man but put some more thought into it before making such judgements. You don't want to come off as a bad stereotype do you?"

"Besides if I wanted to force anything," Naruto made a small gesture and Chichi reached behind her and pulled out her giant blade, sticking it into the ground in front of her and leaning on it lightly. "none of you could take on my Chichi."

He hadn't said it threateningly. It was as if he was stating a simple fact, like the sky was blue.

Sokka took a step back but before he could respond Grandma Kanna placed a steadying hand on his shoulder and stepped forward.

"Please forgive my grandchild," she began politely but firmly. "The years have been difficult since the men of the village left to fight in the war and Sokka takes his position as the eldest man of the village very seriously."

Naruto smiled brightly.

"I understand completely." He said as he walked forward and bowed in the traditional water tribe greeting. "I take it you are the village leader then?"

"Yes," Gran gran said as she returned the bow and a small smile formed on her face. "They look to me for certain decisions these days. They seem to think that these old bones have some grand wisdom tucked away."

Naruto tilted his head quizzically.

"Old? How could such a breathtaking woman such as you be old?" Naruto said sincerely as he took Kannas hand and smiled his signature foxy grin. "Trust me, I know old and you miss are a beauty that defies such a plain classification."

Sokka's jaw could not have dropped further as he saw his beloved Gran gran's cheeks take on a darker hue.

"That kind of flattery is not going to get you anywhere, young man." Kanna bit back.

"Flattery?" Naruto responded just as quick. "My dear, don't you know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?"

"All right that's enough!" Sokka nearly screamed out as he made to stand between his Grandmother and the very strange Naruto. "You mentioned trading didn't you? Well let's have a look then."

Naruto looked Sokka up and down for a moment before nodding and smiling once again.

"Of course young man, however I still haven't caught your name."

"It's Sokka."

"Well, let's get on with it shall we Sok…. Oh my Spirits! Chichi, look at that adorable bison, it's so fluffy I'm gonna die!"

* * *

After trading for a while, Naruto and his companion somehow got the entire village to love them. There was just something about the couple that drew them in. Even Sokka wasn't completely immune. At one point he had caught himself enthusiastically conversing with Naruto about the new defences he had been working on. Part of it might have been that it had been so long since an older male had been present in his life but the blonde also just had this charisma that infected everyone around him.

As for Chichi, she was a big hit with the kids. Her bubbly personality and large frame excited the children and put them at ease around her almost immediately.

As the sun began to set Kanna invited the couple to stay for dinner and they accepted. Naruto even volunteered to cook for the whole village with the various ingredients he had brought with him. Turned out he was a phenomenal chef and the village quickly devoured the small feast that Naruto had whipped up. When asked about how he had attained his culinary skills Naruto had laughed jovially.

"Lots of time, trial and error." he had replied.

Naruto even made something for Appa. When Sokka asked him how he knew what the bison would eat Naruto had told him that he had recently come across a pretty sweet library with a ton of information.

Later as Chichi and Naruto began to head back to their boat Katara stopped them.

"You mentioned before that the war has been stopped." She asked. "Have you heard anything about warriors from the southern water tribe and their ships?"

Naruto tilted his head as he thought for a moment.

"Hmm, can't say that I have." Naruto lied.

Of course he knew. He knew every deployment of every military currently in the war. He even knew of those in the Northern Water tribe that hadn't been actively involved in the conflict thus far. But a regular trader wouldn't know that. So he lied.

"Wherever they are I'm sure they are safe and all thinking of you." Naruto said comfortingly.

Katara looked down for a moment in silent contemplation before she walked up to Naruto and gave him a hug.

"You really are a kind person, Naruto." She said as she turned her head to look into his eyes. "Thank you."

Naruto blinked and was silent for a split second before a brilliant smile formed on his face.

"And you Katara are a caring and bright soul." Naruto said as he patted her head lightly. "Don't let anyone take that from you. Good night."

After Katara and the rest of the village bid them goodnight Naruto and Chichi left through the little opening in the wall of snow surrounding the village.

Sokka stopped them there.

"I still don't trust either of you and you hit on my grandma. I don't think I'm ever going to be able to get that out of my head." Sokka said as he shivered. "But I haven't heard laughter in the village like that in a long time…..so…..you know….like…..thanks or whatever."

"You're very welcome Sokka." Naruto replied as Sokka shifted uncomfortably. "I will see you tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Sokka said as he quickly headed back to the village.

Naruto watched the boy go until Chichi pressed against him from behind.

"Naruuuutttoo" she moaned out as she reached for his crotch.

Naruto turned his head and gave her a quick kiss.

"You know the others won't be too happy to know that we've fucked several times already."

"I don't really care. Fuck me."

"As you wish." Naruto chuckled.

* * *

Aang awoke to the sound of shrill laughter. He opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the noise; his vision was blocked however by the tent that he found himself in. Looking around he located his shirt and quickly put it on, grabbing his staff after he finished. Just as he was about to head out Katara came into the tent.

"Oh, you're already awake. Alright, well come and meet everyone." she said as she grabbed him by the hand.

Once Aangs eyes adjusted to the light he was finally able to see what all the commotion was about. Appa was hovering some ten feet of the ground with a tall red headed woman standing below. The woman was throwing the squealing children up into Appas saddle and the children would then slide down his tail into a soft embankment of snow.

'Appa must have eaten and rested.' He thought.

Aang immediately wanted to go and join in. Before he could however, Katara presented him to a group of women, Sokka and a yellow haired man that was hanging out at the back watching the children rather than paying attention to him and Katara.

When Aang's gaze rested on the blonde for a seemingly long moment the man's blue eyes glanced over to him and a strange aura overcame him. He felt small, insignificant, weightless, excited, afraid, warm and a whole other bucket of emotions that he couldn't quite understand at that moment, all at the same time. He didn't know how long the moment lasted but as soon as the blonde's eyes turned away the feeling was gone and he felt like he could breathe again.

"…..and this is my Grandma Kanna." He heard Katara finish up her introductions.

"Call me Gran gran." The older woman said.

"It's nice to meet you all." Aang said as happily as he could and with a small bow.

Aang was surprised and a little confused when the group of women in front of him regarded him with apprehension.

"Uh…why are they looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?" Aang asked Katara as he looked down at his clothes.

"Well no one has seen an air bender in a hundred years. We thought they were extinct. Until my granddaughter and grandson found you." The grandmother said as she stepped forward a little.

"Extinct?" Aang asked but before anyone could respond Sokka came up to Aang and grabbed his staff.

"What is this, a weapon? You can't stab anyone with this." He said as he inspected the rod.

"It's not for stabbing." Aang said as he pulled the staff back to himself with a gust of wind. "It's for air bending."

With another gust the wings popped out to the villager's amazement and Sokkas surprise.

"Ho?" the group heard the blonde's voice ring out from behind them. "How interesting."

The tall man then made his way through the group and approached Aang.

"Tell me young man." The blue eyed man asked with a gleam in his eye. "Would you be interested at all in selling such an interesting piece to me?"

"Uh, not really." Aang replied "It was a gift from my mentor."

"I see." The man nodded knowingly. "Such an item would be priceless wouldn't it? I had to give it a try though."

Aang didn't know how to deal with the man in front of him. Something inside him was churning as he stayed in the blonde's presence. It was a strange feeling that he couldn't identify. However at the same time the man gave off a warmth and kindness that he had only ever felt from his mentor Gyatso. He decided to ignore the strange feeling and chose to focus on the warmth and kindness.

"Ah, but where are my manners?" The blonde smiled now as he gave a small bow and Aang was a little puzzled when next to him Sokka sighed happily. "I am Naruto Uzumaki, traveling merchant and entrepreneur."

"Entre-what?" Aang asked scratching his head.

"I heard a little bit about how you were found young man." Naruto said and Aang felt the man's gaze become a little more intense. "If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"

"I'm twelve." Aang said as he stood a little straighter.

"I see. It was nice to meet you Aang." Naruto said as he turned and made his way to where the tall woman was.

'So weird.' Aang thought before he was distracted by Katara again.

* * *

Zuko looked through his spyglass searching the area where the flare had gone off.

His gaze was quickly drawn to the black Fire Nation ship (the light blue and white ice and snow made it very easy to spot) and the figures leaping out of it.

"The last air bender, quiet agile for his old age." Zuko muttered under his breath before turning to his crew. "Wake my uncle! Tell him I found the avatar."

Zuko then scanned the area in the direction that they were running and spotted a small village.

"As well as his hiding place."

* * *

Naruto and Chichi stood outside of the village and off to the side away from the argument taking place.

After Aang had woken up and Naruto had introduced himself, Naruto had gotten Chichi and headed back to their boat. He had needed to go over a couple of things with his other half and his various commanders. The Avatar had just popped up. That was a pretty big thing to plan around. Then Chichi had distracted him. God that woman loved sex.

They had emerged later to see the village gathering near the gate to meet Aang and Katara.

"I knew it. You signalled the fire navy with that flare. You're leading them straight to us aren't you?" Sokka accused.

"Aang didn't do anything. It was an accident." Katara defended.

"Yeah, we were on the ship and there was this booby trap and well we….we boobied right into it." Aang chipped in.

"Katara, you shouldn't have gone on that ship. Now we could all be in danger." Kanna reprimanded.

"Don't blame Katara. I brought her there. It's my fault." Aang said sorrowfully.

"Aha! The traitor confesses, warriors away from the enemy, the foreigner is banished from our village." Sokka commanded.

"Sokka you're making a mistake." Katara said angrily.

"No, I'm keeping my promise to dad. I'm protecting you from threats like him." Sokka pointed accusingly.

"Excuse me." Naruto's voice cut through the argument like a knife.

Everyone turned and looked at Naruto who was walking towards them slowly and in a placating manner with palms open and outstretched.

"I know it's not my place but if I might interject for a moment." Naruto began with a smile. "I can tell emotions are high at this point but if I could just point out some things as a neutral party here. Firstly, and I mean no offence by this, but what reason could the Fire Nation have for setting up such an elaborate infiltration? All your warriors are away as I am sure they are aware. It may seem ruthless but if they wanted you gone you would be. Second, the pillar of light yesterday would have attracted any interested parties regardless of the flare earlier. Even I used it to help me find your village. Finally, if any danger is coming I find it incredibly foolish to turn away a powerful air bender AND perhaps even more importantly a flying bison that could quickly relocate at least all of the children out of harm's way."

Everyone took in everything Naruto said with varying reactions. Katara was pleased, Aang looked hopeful, Kanna was pensive and Sokka seemed like he wanted to argue but was having a hard time coming up with a reason. The rest of the village was also going through different emotions but what was becoming very clear to the mothers was that their concern for their children was outweighing everything else. The children were just confused.

"Now, if I may suggest a course of action?" Naruto continued. "Let the air bender help. Have him use his bison to transport as many people away as possible to a safe place that only you know of until such a time that any potential danger has passed. Have your strongest members leave last. When everyone evacuates safely Aang, Sokka, Chichi and I will stay. If no danger comes, Sokka will come get you. If it does we will defend the village if we can or deal with anyone that is just curious. If we cannot do that then we can escape. Appa can circle back to pick us up or Chichi can outrun almost anything and can get Sokka to you while losing any pursuers. I can take care of myself and Aang can just fly away."

"I'll help with anything you guys need!" Aang volunteered eagerly. "Let me make up for my mistake."

"It is a good plan Sokka." Kanna said to Sokka as she touched his shoulder.

Several moments passed before Sokka nodded briskly.

"Alright let's do it." Sokka grunted. He clearly didn't like being overruled but his protective side won over. That was a good trait in any man and Naruto was happy that Sokka possessed it.

* * *

Zuko stood in the back end of his ship as the men assembled.

"Spilt into your teams and team two, hurry up with your preparations." Zuko commanded as he jumped into one of his smaller boats.

As the men loaded up Zuko briefly thought back to what Jiraiya had said that had inspired this plan.

' _Why are you so focused on learning battles where it's you against one or multiple people? If anything you should be training with your entire crew against my team. From what I've read it'll be the best chance you have against a fully realised Avatar.'_

Zuko almost never smiled but he felt his lips curl slightly as the boats slid into the freezing water.

'Almost there.' He thought. 'Almost there.'

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes as he finished scanning Zukos ship out in the water.

"You know Chichi," Naruto said to her as she stood next to him in the fog just outside the village. "I think I may have made this a lot harder than it probably would have been."

* * *

 **Not a lot of action in this chapter. Next one will remedy that. For now I have decided to put off lemons as I want to continue to focus primarily on the story.**

 **I also wanted to apologise for posting the last chapter twice. I was trying to post a URL on my profile but it wasn't showing up so I removed it from the authors note.**

 **I'm going to be bringing in two characters from Naruto's past into this story. I don't know who yet so I would like your suggestions. Two restrictions though. They have to be female and not part of the main cast or even primary secondary characters. The more obscure the better.**

 **I also got an interesting review saying that my story was too good for them to read. That was interesting. It did raise a potentially interesting criticism for me though. Do you guys have trouble understanding what is going on? Let me know. Thank you for reading this far.**

 **Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames will be ignored. Till next time.**


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